For a man to imagine a world in which authority is despised is not difficult. He needs only to look out his front door, for it is his own world. The media and the workplace, the school and the public square, the political realm and the culture at large, all show indications that authority has no rightful place among us today. Hierarchy is heresy; distinctions are divisive; and man, in his ‘great wisdom,’ has achieved universal equity and equality. With violent allegiance to the god of great equities, the pundits proliferate, and so do their ‘equal’ opinions. Of course, when every opinion counts equally, every opinion is equally trivial. Few seem to ask the question: “How can anything matter if everything matters the same?” But the church must always ask, “Have the pagans infected us?”
Authority presupposes hierarchy; hierarchy presupposes inequality. This is blasphemy in today’s world. Of course, Christians understand that God is the Ultimate Sovereign, that His will is supreme and no one can thwart His purposes, and that His law and His decrees are absolute, unchanging, and universally binding. This means, then, in the contemporary context, that God is a heretic and so are His people. He dares to assume a position of authority and impose it on man. Thankfully, on this point, many Christians have or are awakening to the glory of God’s authority in all areas of life. However, at the same time, Christians are at risk of being subtly influenced by the pagan hordes, specifically with regard to the authority of the pastor. Nevertheless, an examination of Scripture’s teaching and the testimony of various pastors demonstrates that, despite the claims of objectors, pastors possess—at minimum—a delegated, declarative, and disciplinary authority.
Scriptures On Pastoral Authority
The Scriptures are not ambiguous on the subject of pastoral authority. In fact, the clearest demonstration of this can be found in the writings of the Apostle Paul, specifically the pastoral epistles written to Timothy and Titus. There, Paul notes that the overseer, or pastor/elder, must be: of godly character; able to teach, preach, prescribe, exhort, rebuke, reprove, refute, charge, and command; managing his own household well, keeping his children in subjection (1 Timothy 3:1ff; 2 Timothy 2:2, 4:2; Titus 1:5ff). Paul also requires that elders who rule well ought to be given double honors (1 Timothy 5:17).
The Law of God demands a minimum of two witnesses to establish judgment (Deuteronomy 19:15). In this respect, the Scriptures are not only clear but also lawful in their verification of pastoral authority, providing a second Apostolic witness in the writings of the Apostle Peter. He confirms pastoral authority, specifically in his first epistle to Christian believers. In the fifth chapter, he gives these exhortations to elders: to willingly shepherd the flock of God, to exercise oversight over them, and to be examples to them (1 Peter 5:1-3).
Pastors, Scholars, and Fathers On Pastoral Authority
The testimony of pastors, scholars, and fathers in the faith, both modern and historic, although sometimes confused, largely buttresses the point. Benjamin Merkle (2016), scholar and professor of New Testament, says plainly in a recent 9Marks article that “pastors have authority” and that honor and obedience are due to them (par 1), for they are shepherds, teachers, and representatives (par 2). This is most agreeable, being plainly deduced from various passages of Scripture. So essential, in fact, is the pastoral office and authority that Alexander Strauch (1997) asserts in his work Biblical Eldership that for a church to attain sufficient biblical order, it must have a pastor/elder (27). This points to the significance of the pastor and his authority as being crucial to the church and her prescribed order.
But is this essential ingredient always viewed as such in the contemporary American evangelical church? The question is difficult to answer, but one thing is sure: there is some confusion. For example, John MacArthur (2017), one of the most popular pastors in America, was recently asked this question during a Q&A panel at his church: “how much authority does a pastor have in the lives of his congregants?” (0:20 – 0:25). His initial response was striking: “um, none, no authority” (0:26 – 0:29). But if it’s true that pastors have no authority, then upon what basis are MacArthur’s comments, as a pastor answering this question, to be accepted?
Granted, MacArthur went on to clarify his position—after emphasizing repeatedly that he had no authority—stating that pastors, including himself, do have authority only insofar as Scripture prescribes (1:07 – 1:10). This is an important point, but it’s also quite general. Scripture, although sufficient and authoritative, does not address everything directly, and even what it does address directly requires application that is not always clear in the text. In these instances, does the pastor still possess authority, and if so, how is it to be exercised? Is there a level of subjectivity involved in applying the objective Word?
Displeased with MacArthur’s comments, Pastor Tim Bayly (2019) wrote in an article entitled Marriage (2): A Warning from John MacArthur that pastors mediate Christ’s authority (par 4, emphasis mine), and to deny this is to deny the Word of God (par 3) and to violate the fifth commandment by what the Westminster Divines called “lessening [one’s] authority” (par 5). There is a stark difference here between MacArthur and Bayly which must be noted. The former equivocates on pastoral authority while the latter cuts straight through to the point of claiming the other is in sin (par 6). This is not the only place that Bayly has spoken of pastoral authority. In his book Church Reformed (2019) he laments:
“Everything we [pastors] do and say is carefully calculated to deny that we have any authority. We pastors don’t want to be authorities to anyone. The pastor slouches in his pulpit and tells the people he has no authority. Only the Bible has authority” (135).
The historic consensus of fathers in the faith offers another perspective, helping to clarify the subject of pastoral authority. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin says, “[God] uses the ministry of men, by making them, as it were, his substitutes…” (700, emphasis mine). Here it appears that Calvin corroborates the mediated ministerial authority of the pastor as acting in the place of Christ, claiming that ministers are God’s representatives (700) and to undermine this government tends to ruin the church (702). For Calvin, authority in the church and her officers, which would include the pastor’s authority, was key to her success and order.
The late Charles Hodge (2018), former professor and theologian at Princeton Seminary, adds even greater detail to this authority with a warning: “Resistance to [church authority] is resistance against God” (Systematic Theology, 360). Indeed, if a man who fails to love his brother cannot love God (1 John 4:20), how can a man who resists his pastor’s authority claim to submit to God’s authority? In fact, so important is submission to pastoral authority that Nehemiah Coxe (2015), in his book Biblical Elders and Deacons, says that fitting obedience to pastors is the owed duty of congregants (20) and without it the pastor’s ministry will be handicapped (25). Such statements ought to be cause for pause.
Objections To Pastoral Authority
To all of this, certain objections may arise, and lest these objections be thought to be wild, it must be said that they are indeed made, even by men worthy of respect. One such objection is to attempt to pit Jesus against the clear didactic teaching of Paul and Peter—an oxymoron considering His Spirit inspired their words. It is thought that Jesus’s comments about who the greatest is in the kingdom nullify any distinction between clergy and laity, and that leaders are servants, not rulers, and that their leadership is functional, not positional. This is posited from the following passage:
“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28, see also: Matthew 18:1-6, 23:1-12; Mark 9:33-37, 10:32-45; Luke 9:46-48, 22:24-27; John 13:12-17).
The context of this passage has nothing to do with pastoral authority and everything to do with greatness in the Kingdom, what might be called kingdom dynamics—God’s way of working in the world. In response to Jesus mentioning His crucifixion, death, and resurrection—His humiliation and exaltation—James and John, in ambition likely stemming from misconceptions, sought glory for themselves with Christ in His Kingdom (Matthew 20:20-21). Paul explicates this kingdom dynamic in Philippians 2:5-11, namely, that Jesus, although He existed as God, emptied Himself as a servant in humility, being obedient to the point of death. Therefore, He has been exalted and given the name above all names. In other words, humility comes before honor (Proverbs 15:33, 18:12). That’s the point Jesus makes here, not pastoral authority.
Another objection to pastoral authority which might be made is from, strangely enough, Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” The objector begins his primary argument with the greek word for obey (πείθω, pā’-thō), claiming that this means be persuaded by rather than obey, and that this verse forms an inclusio, or textual bracket of relationship, with verse 7. According to Strong’s Concordance, among other things, πείθω means to be persuaded, have confidence, trust—but it can also mean to listen, yield, obey, comply with.
For the sake of argument, however, let it be granted that in this instance πείθω means be persuaded by. So what? The text still says “submit.” But then the objector claims that this is the only use of the greek word translated submit in the entire Bible. He is correct. Therefore, in light of what is seemingly inconclusive, the full text must be examined. Whoever the leaders are, they “keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.” If this is to be done “with joy and not with grief” what does that presuppose but the necessity of those being watched over to obey their leaders? In other words, for the one in authority to be obeyed produces joy but to be disobeyed produces grief. “A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother” (Proverbs 10:1). As it is in the family with parents and children so it is in the church with shepherds and sheep.
Furthermore, suppose the text does mean be persuaded by and that submit means something else. What remains is this: “Be persuaded by and _____ your leaders…” This means, according to such a translation, that mere persuasion in the mind of the laymen or the lack thereof begets joy and grief in the leaders. Is this really what this text says? Such an understanding not only robs the text of any meaningful sense or relationship, it also does damage to the clear teaching on pastoral authority found throughout the full corpus of the New Testament Scriptures. And, even granting that this is the way it ought to be translated, the objector still must face that troublesome word and all of the hierarchy and distinctions it presupposes: leaders.
Forms Of Pastoral Authority
So what is pastoral authority? At minimum, it can be defined succinctly as existing in at least three forms: delegated, declarative, and disciplinary. The delegated authority of the pastor speaks to the origin of his authority. It is not something he dreams up. Rather, it is something that is given, or delegated to him. Specifically, as Merkle notes, it is divinely delegated (par 3). In his book The Church of Christ, James Bannerman agrees: “it is plain … that our Lord [conveyed] to His Church a permanent gift of authority and power in the way of discipline that was long to outlast the ministry of the Apostles” (191). Although he here speaks of disciplinary authority as delegated, it must be noted that there is no discipline without delegation first.
Further pastoral authority is found in its declarative form. Declarative authority pertains to the pastor’s speaking, teaching, and preaching. Under these headings would also fall exhortation, rebuke, reproof, command, charge, counsel, and the like. In this sense, the pastor, as the prophet before him, is to be God’s mouthpiece, to declare the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) and to speak the oracles of God (1 Peter 4:11). With respect to the pastor’s declarative authority, Calvin, in another translation of his Institutes, comments quite strikingly:
“[Pastors] may dare boldly to do all things by God’s Word; may compel all worldly power, glory, wisdom, and exaltation to yield to and obey his majesty; supported by his power; may command all from the highest even to the last, may build up Christ’s household and cast down Satan’s; may feed the sheep and drive away the wolves; may instruct and exhort the teachable; may accuse, rebuke, and subdue the rebellious and stubborn; may bind and loose; finally, if need be, may launch staunch thunderbolts and lightnings; but do all things in God’s Word” (1156, emphasis mine).
Preaching up to six times per week in Geneva, Calvin was no stranger to what he says above. In all likelihood, such was his pattern of life and such was what he taught to his students. The strong verbs must be noted and the question asked: could contemporary Christians stomach such declaratively authoritative preaching from their pastors—compelling, commanding, accusing, subduing, binding, thundering— especially because this is such a far cry from the modern and arbitrary etiquette of being “nuanced” and “winsome”?
The final fundamental form of pastoral authority, and perhaps the most controversial, is disciplinary. Along with the elders and the church, disciplinary authority is to be wielded by the pastor to bring various censures against offenders in the church, often termed “church discipline.” Bannerman sums up the purposes of this disciplinary authority as being the power to admit persons to and excommunicate persons from the fellowship, and the power to use various means to secure the obedience and edification of persons (191). All of this, of course, is performed and regulated according to the Word of God and the law of Christ.
To see pastoral authority in such ways is surely within the bounds of Scripture and reason. Man may object to this. But it is fruitless. In fact, for a man to resist the rightful and biblical authority of his pastor is to resist the very authority established by Christ Himself, to deny the clear teaching of the Scriptures, and to go against the testimony of the church’s shepherds across generations. Such a rebellious man no doubt endangers his soul. This is perhaps why Nehemiah Coxe can say these words: “[a man who] thinks himself too good, or too wise, to receive instruction or submit to reproof from his pastor ill deserves a place in any Christian congregation” (20). Indeed, hierarchy is holy and distinctions are divine; he who despises these things must himself be despised.
WORKS CITED
Bannerman, James. The Church of Christ Vol. II. Scarsdale, NY: Westminster, 2002.
Bayly, Tim. Marriage (2): a warning from John MacArthur. 2019. <https://warhornmedia.com/2019/03/11/marriage-2-a-warning-from-john-macarthur/>
Bayly, Tim. Church Reformed. Bloomington, IN: Warhorn, 2019.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Peabody, MS: Hendrickson, 2017.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. UK: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960.
Coxe, Nehemiah. Biblical Elders and Deacons. Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2015.
Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology Vol. III. Peabody, MS: Hendrickson, 2018.
MacArthur, John. John MacArthur on a Pastor’s Authority. YouTube: 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X65vspiZLLA>
Merkle, Benjamin. “What is the Nature of Pastoral Authority?” 9Marks Journal. 26 September 2016. <https://www.9marks.org/article/what-is-the-nature-of-pastoral-authority-perspectives-from-a-methodist-a-presbyterian-and-a-baptist/>
Strauch, Alexander. Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in the Church. Littleton, CO: Lewis and Roth, 1997.