Question of Authority

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply

Title: Question of Authority
Keyword: “authority”
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

Passage: Mark 11:27-33*

27. Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as [Jesus] was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.

28. And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things? [He had just thrown the money changers out of the Temple] And who gave You this authority to do these things?"

29. But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:

30. "The baptism of John — was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me."

31. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'

32. "But if we say, 'From men' — they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.

33. So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know." And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Question

When people ask you questions that seem to touch too close to secret sins you are carrying, do you strategize your answer in order to “look good” in their eyes?

 

Practical help

There are politically correct answers and there are truthful answers. Jesus is interested in honest answers to simple questions. If you have to strategize what will happen if you answer one way versus another, then you are not seeking truth. If you are not honest within yourself then God will be very difficult for you to find even though He is actually always very near.

If you are truthful first with yourself and then with God, you might find what appears to be a very difficult road ahead — similar perhaps to the children of Israel at the Red Sea. God had delivered them from Egypt with the plagues and now they stand at an impassable sea with the Egyptian army closing in behind them. For you it might mean becoming honest with those you have been deceiving. It might mean losing a job because, although it pays good money, is morally corrupting. Whatever the cost, seeking to be truthful is the way back to life, and like the parting of the Red Sea, if you are obedient to God, He will fight for you.

eXXit homepage
Index of three-minute studies
Copyright 2003 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. "