“A Dangerous Proposition”

Scripture Text:

“Don’t slander a servant to his master; otherwise, the servant will curse you, and you will be guilty.” -Proverbs 30:10

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” – Romans 13:1

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” – Hebrews 13:17

While teaching a lesson on why it is important to listen to and respect authority without finding fault with the authority in question, I gave the following scenario as an illustration:

“A person is stopped by the highway patrol for exceeding the posted speed limit. While the officer questioned the offender, the speeder then accused the officer of speeding also. Needless to say, the speeder received a ticket with the maximum financial PENALTY for speeding.”

Now the lesson of the illustration is this:

Pointing out the officer’s violation of the law didn’t help or forgive the offender’s violation but made his circumstances even worse.

Sometimes someone in authority may have a word of correction or rebuke for us. They are only doing what they are authorized or sent by God to do. However, instead of learning from the experience, we in our pride will take offense to the rebuke and attempt to disqualify and dismiss them by saying things like “You ain’t perfect either” or we will try to find fault with them and bring up their past transgressions in order to hurt them and shut them up.

This is immature and evil and has its roots in rebellion and stubbornness. It doesn’t erase the wrong we are guilty of but adds to our punishment.

Are you missing the point of a life saving rebuke because you are too busy finding fault with the messenger?

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