Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 20-21.
After Jesus drove the money changers and merchants out of the temple (Matthew 21:12-13), it is not surprising that the chief priest and elders questioned Him about those things He was doing.
“When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?’ And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?” But if we say, “From men,” we fear the people; for they all regard as a prophet.’ And answering Jesus, they said, ‘We do not know.’ He also said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things’” (Matthew 21:23-27).
Their question was a good one. What Jesus was doing was not something that was commonly done. Therefore, unless He was acting lawlessly, He had to have been given authority to do these actions by someone in a position to give Him such authority. Their problem was that they were not asking honestly, which is proven by their refusal to answer Jesus’ question. But their question itself was good.
In everything we do, we must ask ourselves: By what authority are we doing these things? Jesus stated that there are just two basic sources of authority – heaven and men. We are to “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). This means we must do all things by His authority.
Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). This authority is to be the basis of all that we believe and practice (Matthew 28:19-20). If our beliefs and practices are not founded in the authority of Christ, we have no right to hold on to them.
Tomorrow’s reading: Luke 18:15-19:48
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
