I accept that no one is free from error, and yet I want to assert that human frailty is not an excuse to resist submission to those in positions of authority. As I see it, our submission is not most essentially to the person in authority, who is frail and fallen, but to the gift and calling of God that is present in that person’s life. This said, I think it’s important to add that our submission should be discerning in nature. Perhaps it is proper to say that we need to critically submit to those God has placed in authority. For in doing so, I imagine that we benefit from the gift that is present in such a person’s life, and we winnow out the bad that comes from how the gift may be perverted by the person’s brokenness.

In saying all this, I realize I raise the question of what a critical submission looks like, and I have to say that I honestly don’t know. Off hand, I would say that it doesn’t mean we are free dismiss the person or rebel against a person in authority when we disagree with them, because that would effectively be no submission at all. However, I imagine that there are ways to resist or provide a living critique without undermining the basic authority structure.

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