Today’s Application

Let's make up a pretend religious establishment and call it Fully Dedicated Church (FDC). Let's say the founders of FDC require the following three rules of etiquette as demonstrations of love towards other FDC members:

1. Keep your shoes on at all times because feet stink and its not pleasant.
2. No laptops in the first four rows to prevent: 
   

   • Inappropriate material broadcasted on tv,
   • Appropriate non-sanctioned material inadvertently broadcasted with implied approval, 
   • Appropriate sanctioned material is not shown favoritism.
3. No loud worship or prayer in certain areas because it distracts others from their pursuit.

On the surface, these rules seem justifiable as loving by considering others before ourselves. Let's take a closer look at these rules by comparing them to what is written in the Holy Bible. Doing so, brings us face to face with the very distinct possibility that those who write man’s rules of etiquette may not be the ones who enforce them.

This leads to the potential problem that the original intent of man’s rules are ignored due to all kinds of reasons:

• The weaknesses of the one enforcing the rules do not have the same level of love and kindness in their hearts as those who established the rules. This would result in some sort of abuse by enforcers. John the Baptist explicitly commanded Roman soldiers to be satisfied with their wages because of this very problem.
• The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. Luke 6:45 This makes it highly likely that those rules could end up being taught with higher priority than God’s actual commands. Any time God’s words are relegated to second place in a human heart, that human because susceptible to sin against God.

When this happens, Christian leaders pull the “obey me” card that requires everyone to adhere to the enforcer's demands. This is justified as granting grace to the enforcer at the expense of righteousness to the underling. Thus, "lording authority as the gentiles" has taken place within Christianity where Jesus commanded it should not occur. Furthermore, grace is only grace when it is granted freely and not forced from members who have no authority within the organization.

So far this has been a theoretical look at the “what ifs” of enforcing man’s rules of etiquette. Of course I could not cover everything. But, if I told you the actual events of times when Church leaders have lorded their manmade authority over me and my friends, it would make your head spin in disgust. But, I’m willing to bet I don’t need to share them here as you’ve probably already have your own horror stories of religious leaders lording their authority over you. 

You’re not alone. Jesus had to deal with people lording their authority over Him. Just look at Mom and Dad taking Him away from the temple where Jesus wanted to always be about His father’s business. Jesus had to learn to be submissive. In fact, Jesus had to learn obedience by the things He suffered. That is how He could be obedient to God’s will for crucifixion. Peter and John faced this trial in the book of Acts when they told their religious leaders to decide for themselves what was right, to obey God or man. 

The saddest part of this issue is that Peter, later in Acts, had to judge a dispute between the Jews and Greek converts. Peter’s resolution was to only teach that which Jesus taught them and therefore required every man remain physically unaltered. In other words, when Peter was faced with the temptation to add his own rules of etiquette, Peter chose to not do so. This is a huge lesson that we can all learn from as Jesus came to set us free from the religious legalisms of men.

It is not fun to have man’s religious authority lorded over us the way the gentiles lord their authority over their subjects. But, God works all things for good to those who love Him. 

Copyright (c) 2026 by Diane Pebley All rights reserved, no use granted without the express written permission of the author, Diane Pebley