Kingdom Voting (Part 1): Authority Structures

God’s biblical plan for human authority and dominion begins in Genesis 1:26-29, when He makes man in His image as a three-part speaking spirit, gives man dominion over the rest of Creation, and gives man the plants with seeds. These four characteristics--God’s image, dominion, speech, and seed--are what distinguish mankind from the animals, and each one is connected to how God expects humanity to exercise their authority on the earth.

God gave people dominion over all the earth, but He did not initially give them dominion over one another. As such, one might argue that God was an anarchist, but Scripture does not support that idea. From the introduction of marital headship in Genesis 3:16 to His promise of kings through Judah in Genesis 49:8-12, God had a plan for structured authority from the beginning. Modern believers would do well to understand God’s original plan for authority structures and how His plan remains evident in the modern world.

God’s plan for authority structures exists wherever people interact with each other. In any human interaction, decisions must be made, and there are only three potential outcomes of any joint decision. People can either walk together, walk in submission, or walk away.

People walk together when they agree. Some people agree on almost everything, and it is easy for them to walk together. However, every relationship has its fair share of disagreements. What happens then? Sometimes, they cannot reconcile the disagreement, and they part ways. This is appropriate in some places (2 Corinthians 6:14-16), and there are some principles believers should never compromise or surrender.

However, there is a way for people to disagree and continue to walk together—submission. Submission is when one person disagrees with the other’s decision, but yields and goes along with it anyway. Submission tends to happen through compromise, differences in levels of conviction, or a mutual understanding of who will be held accountable for the decision.

Compromise is when both parties give up something that matters less to them in order to gain something that matters more. Essentially, every person walks in both submission and agreement. Each person submits in a small way, and they all agree in a large way.

Sometimes, people differ in their levels of conviction. Maybe one person is really craving Asian food and the other would prefer pizza, but only slightly. In such situations, many people give preference to whomever has the strongest conviction, desire, or strength of will.

Finally, people can submit when they have a mutual understanding of who will be held accountable for the decision. A passenger may want a driver to run a red light, but both understand whose license is at stake. Similarly, children may want their father to skip work and play with them, but he still shows up to work his scheduled shift, because he knows he will be held accountable for his decision to stay home. God’s authority structures make submission easy, because they make clear who will be held accountable for decisions.