Cheryl Schatz

Craig,
I am going to jump in here too, to give my thoughts on your questions. Regarding #1 about legitimate authority of one human over another (other than parents and children), the only answer that I can think of is the one that gengwall gave regarding the government.

By the way, I thought that your questions were EXCELLENT! Very well thought-out and they have caused us to reflect on what we believe.

2. Would anyone be able to define authority please?

Other than dealing with parent-child and government, I see Biblical authority as the right to act or to make a decision.

I believe that God has given all of us some type of authority to act. In 1 Cor. 11:10 Paul says that women have authority to make a decision about their own head (and whether she will wear a head covering or not).

1 Corinthians 11:10 (ISV)
10This is why a woman should have authority over her own head: because of the angels.

What I see from the Scriptures is an empowerment of authority to make our own mature decisions so it is an authority over ourselves. There is also an authority to use the gifts that God has given us:

1 Peter 4:10–11 (NAS)
10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The gift then that God gives us is the authority given by God to use it for the benefit of the body of Christ. In fact the only time that the gifts are ever restricted is when they would not be benefiting the body. For example speaking in tongues is held back if there is no interpretor since an unknown tongue would not benefit the body. But as a rule, the gift given has with it the right to use the gift freely for the good of the body. That is our authority and it is not an authority over someone else but an authority to take what has been given us and use it.

I also believe that we have an authority in our own private homes to restrict evil. For example I have the authority to deny people the freedom to abuse drugs in my home. It is a God-given authority as God has given both my husband and myself the freedom and responsibility to be the rulers of our home.

3. How does leadership differ from authority?

If God-given authority is an authority over one’s personal decisions and one’s personal space and one’s personal gifts, leadership is different in that it doesn’t involve an authority or right to make decisions over one’s own areas of personal responsibility. Leadership involves providing a living example of the things that you teach. The example is for others to see and understand the ways of God lived out in our lives. When our own life is a living sacrifice for others so that the body of Christ can see Jesus within us, our leadership is a encouragement to follow the way of the Master by seeing the Word of God come to life in us.

In this way, true Biblical leadership is an example set, not an authority taken. When Christian husbands live this kind of lifestyle of “leadership” how could any woman object? The self-sacrifice and Christ-like selfless example of a husband should never cause a Christian wife to reject him or his “leadership”. She too is to initiate a Christ-like example of self-sacrifice so that even if her husband were not a believer, by her godly example of living a gentle and respectful life, he will be influenced to follow her into Christianity.

I think it is so neat that we can give our own views and examples and yet we all seem to come up with the same kind of answers.

Unfortunately the foundation of complementarianism is set up as an “authority over” rather than an “example given”. Women bristle at a man taking authority over her as if she was meant to check her brain at the door, stay an immature Christian and let him make the decisions because of his “authority”. I believe that this kind of “leadership” is not true Biblical leadership but is veiled disguise of a the secular “lording it over” another human being. Rather than bringing out the best in us as women, a man who exercises his authority over us can unwittingly produce a dependent adult rather than a mature Christian who was meant to fulfill their place of joint heir and ruler of the world.