I was driving down the road recently and saw a bumper sticker: “Question Authority. Ask me anything!” In our culture, we are our own authority. I’m in charge. We don’t like anybody telling us what to do. Not even pastors are immune. In seminary, I was required to attend chapel every week. During my last year, I didn’t. I thought the rule was stupid. We have a problem with submission to authority. We’re independent, not wanting to be subject to the control of others, not looking to others for guidance in our conduct. We’re individualistic - our values, rights, and duties originate within ourselves. We have a tendency to oppose a tradition, religion, or any other form of external moral standard used to limit our choice of actions. We’re self-determining, wanting free choice without any external compulsion. We want to make ourselves. While there may be some good in each of these characteristics, each, on its own is dangerous. We are not totally independent. We do have free choice, but we should not ignore external guides. And we are not just individuals… We are individuals under authority. Both authority and submission represent things that are really very good for us. But even Christians, maybe unknowingly, tend to buy into our cultures’ over-emphasis on the individual and its rejection of authority. We do what we do based on ourselves, based on what we think and what we want, based not on any external authority. We claim God as our authority, but really we have no authority. And here’s why: God does not directly govern us. He governs us through people and laws. If we are not submitted to authority, we are not submitted to God. If we are independent and individualistic, then Jesus is not and cannot be an authority in our lives. If we are not submitted to human authority, there can be no following Jesus as Lord.