“And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.”
and despise authority
“Authority” carries the ideas of ruling power, lordship, dominion. These people love to rule over people. False teachers held the authority of God’s Word in contempt. They deny their Lord. They do not want the Lord to have dominion over them.
“Despise” means to make of no account, to regard as nothing. The word “despise means to think down upon. False teachers despise authority and treat God and His Word with contempt and scorn. They treat authority as having no impact on them. False teachers held authority in contempt because God’s Word violates their values.
Mt 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
PRINCIPLE:
The authority of God’s Word is our only mooring in a society without an anchor for values.
APPLICATION:
Once we reject the authority of the sovereign Son of God and the Word of God that reveals who He is, then we lose our moorings for truth. We have nothing to which we can anchor our soul.
Today we spawned a generation that despises authority. They reject the authority of the home, work, government and church. These people despise any authority.
Children soon learn when ground rules of the home are not enforced. They know that those rules do not mean anything. They carry that into school and do not respect authorities at university. All this begins with the rejection of the Bible as the final authority. A civilization without ultimate authority will result in anarchy. If we take the Bible away from our children, then we will find them in the penitentiary.
Religion loves to ridicule the Bible. There is a fundamental attitude problem in great areas of religion today. No wonder people have little respect for God.
