Editorial February 5, 2018 Issue

Finding our safety in God’s authority

Tony Lobl

Like many, I’ve thought a good deal about recent harassment and abuse allegations swirling around high-profile figures. In particular, my heart has gone out to those, including friends, who have made known their own subjection to such illicit behavior through the #MeToo hashtag campaign.

As it became clearer to me that abuse of authority was such a key part of the issue, I thought about the question of the power we yield to. It can seem as though our options are limited to either benefiting from honorable uses of human power or suffering from its abuse. But the Bible shows us that we can understand and experience a power that is more than human; it is divine. And to the degree we become conscious of this divine power, we’re placing ourselves under an authority that has no other authority above it or even competing with it. Under this divine authority, which is God’s law of good, we lose our sense of being at the mercy of the negative thoughts and action of others and so become a law to ourselves, finding safety in God’s ever-present power.

Admittedly, it doesn’t seem like such a benign power is at the helm of our lives as one exposure of wrongdoing after another emerges, especially for those directly harmed by the wrong done. But what if there were chinks of light in the history of #MeToo darkness pointing to a transformative power experienced by at least some?

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Bible Lens—February 5–11, 2018