God has established three fundamental governments among men — family, church, and state. These are the governments which He directly ordained; other governments (like the board of a trust or a corporation) are man-made. This means that men have no authority to tinker with the fundamental structures of these God-given governments — in contrast to their authority to mess around with how a service organization (say) is organized.
But because the world is a fallen place, the God-given governments are given to us in a way that requires the principles of checks and balances. Even though these governments are God-given, not one of them is absolute. There is no absolute “divine right of kings.” Or pastors. Or husbands. Put another way, it is possible for a godly man or woman to refuse to go along with a decree from a lawful, established authority in any one of these spheres. At the same time, there is genuine authority there. It is just not unlimited authority.
Biblical examples abound. In the civil realm, David was a wanted man being hunted by King Saul, the Lord’s anointed. David respected Saul’s position (by not killing him when he had the chance), but he also was a commander of an armed renegade band out in the sticks, and did not meekly turn himself in. In the New Testament, Peter broke out of jail and disappeared from the book of Acts a wanted man. Paul the apostle ran a road block established by King Aretas. In the area of church government, Jesus was condemned to death by the General Assembly, and the early apostles refused to stop preaching in Jesus’ name when required to do so by the elders of the people. They refused because it was wrong to obey the word of man over against the Word of God. In the realm of family government, we have the fine example of Abigail, a beautiful and intelligent woman, who immediately saw that her husband was being a reckless idiot, endangering the whole clan. She, without getting his permission, took it upon herself to save his life, along with the life of every other male in the family.
So we have examples of godly “disobedience” in every sphere of God-given government. At the same time, these governments were established by God for a reason, and godly discipline is required in each. This means that there is such a thing as ungodly disobedience in each realm. How are we to sort all this out? How are we supposed to know what to do? The answer is found in the book of Isaiah — to the law and to the testimony. What does the Bible actually require of those in authority, and those under authority? And what is the role of other balancing authorities?
I bring all this up because of something someone brought to my attention yesterday. Somebody posted a summary of a local radio show on Vision 20/20 in which show we were apparently being taken to task over issues of spanking children as well as spousal discipline. Heh. In the first place, we do believe in discipline for everyone, no matter what their station in life, including spouses. After all, we are all Christian disciples, and disciples are those who are under discipline. That is what a disciple is. But we believe in such discipline for those who are under authority and those who are in authority. Why? Because men are sinners, and no one can be entrusted with authority that has no checks. Christian husbands, for example, can (and sometimes do) demand more than God has given them authority to demand. They can abuse their wives and families. When this happens, those around them, who live in the same community with them, are responsible to intervene.
Let me run a little thought experiment. And it is a thought experiment; this is not a real situation. But follow me here, because there is nothing implausible about this set-up. Suppose a man in our congregation was discovered to have been beating his wife. Suppose the story came out because a concerned neighbor called the elders. In a situation like that, we would suspend such a man from the Lord’s Supper, and require that he receive pastoral counseling. If he were repentant, received and applied the counsel and accepted the discipline, he would at some point be restored to his family, and restored to the Table. His God-given authority as a husband does not extend to physical abuse of his wife, and we would act to ensure that he knew that it did not. We would discipline a spouse for his behavior as a spouse. Okay, call it spousal discipline.
But if the man were not repentant, what opportunities might such an individual have? Why, he could take the high-road of kirk-hating. He could leave our church, hot and indignant, his heart teeming with bitterness and his mouth full of stories. And this wife beater could show up anywhere the Wilson cult meets, and his stories would be just flat accepted, sight unseen. This is because the Wilson cult will believe anything about us, regardless of the source, independent of confirmation, so long as it is negative and fits with their blinkered paradigm. If someone has a grievance, they can stuff that particular pig in a poke, and head off to market — and if they seek out the right folks, it is always a seller’s market. “I finally left the kirk because Wilson tried to require that I buy a certain bundle of channels on DirectTV. I think he owns some stock in it. Tyranny, I calls it.” But if I were to tell the real reason he left the church, it would be because of how we responded to the black eye he gave his wife.