What is Your Authority?

One of the most important decisions anyone makes in this life is choosing which authority to trust for their eternal destiny. We can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive, but if we are wrong about which authority to trust for our life after death, we will pay for that mistake for all eternity. As ambassadors for Christ, we must ask people if they have a reliable source for discerning truth from error. Has that source ever been wrong before? Is it possible for that source to ever mislead or deceive people?

Since every religion has an authority, and every person has an opinion, we need to ask people about their source for truth when we share the Gospel. Some will say their authority is a person, a book, a religion, a spirit, or their own understanding. Some will say they rely on their popes, rabbis, religious leaders, religious traditions, human reasoning, church history, church fathers, or Google. Any of these sources might be right some of the time, but there is only one source that is right all the time. Our holy and omniscient God has never been wrong, and He has given us His Word as our only infallible source for truth. Scripture's supreme authority is established by its divine origin. There is no higher authority than our almighty God and creator.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). In other words, Scripture is our supreme authority for knowing truth and correcting all that opposes it. Every word was breathed out by God, who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). Because of this, His inerrant Word must be the standard by which we discern truth from error (1 John 4:6). We also know that Scripture is sufficient to function as the sole infallible rule of faith, because it does not refer us to any other rule of faith. Everything we must know, understand, and believe to be saved is found in Scripture (2 Tim. 3:14-16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4). Therefore, after considering any other source for truth, we must ask, "But what does the Scripture say?" (Gal. 4:30). 

No other source for truth can do everything that Scripture does. It brings conviction, gives wisdom, produces faith, refutes error, and can be used as a sword to slay the devil's lies. For everyone who believes Scripture, it converts, saves, frees, guides, reproves, trains, corrects, sanctifies and equips for every good work. Therefore, we must use it to test the veracity of all of the following:

The teachings of men (Acts 17:11)

Religious traditions (Mark 7:7-13)

The spirits (1 John 4:1)

Church fathers (Acts 20:29-31)

Wisdom of men (1 Cor. 2:5)

Your own understanding (Prov. 3:5)

Why would anyone who is earnestly searching for the truth look anywhere other than the Lord Jesus, who is the personification of truth, who came into this world to testify to the truth, and whose Word is truth (John 14:6, 17:17, 18:37). Scripture is what God says; religion is what man says God says. Therefore, we embrace Scripture as The Supreme Authority for Truth.

Source: Mike Gendron