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errand, leaving an older child to oversee the household, the measure of her true authority will be reflected in how that older child responds during her absence. Does he run wild through the house, or does he make sure his younger siblings are taken care of? If the household is at peace when the mother returns, the children have respected her authority even when she was out of sight. Or, suppose you are in a meeting at your workplace at which fifteen people are present but not the president of the company. Perhaps there is confusion about what should be done regarding a certain matter or who should do it. Then, the president walks in and sits in the back, and the whole discussion and environment change as people calm down and begin to make constructive suggestions. That is an example of silent authority that is put into motion just by one’s presence.
    Jesus of Nazareth had this inherent authority. Once, when the religious leaders of His day wanted to trap Him, they brought to Him a woman who had been caught in adultery to see if He would agree that she should be stoned to death, which was the punishment according to the law. He responded with silence, while they kept demanding an answer. Then, He quietly asked them one question, which decisively defeated them, and they went away. That’s authority.
    They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:6–11)
    Jesus was later dragged before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and was falsely accused. He didn’t say a word in response. His silence unnerved Pilate. It’s interesting that Pilate’s response was to threaten Jesus with authority, telling Him that he had the authority to release Him or to kill Him. Jesus told him, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11 nasb). Jesus was operating under an authority that was higher than the Roman government’s, and even Pilate had to submit to that authority, whether he was aware of it or not.
    Confidence or composure, such as Jesus demonstrated, comes from a sense of true authority. Authority creates its own confidence. A person with true authority doesn’t have to flaunt it; it sells itself. Likewise, when a person has legitimate authority, he doesn’t have to use force or volume to demand that he be heard. People will listen to true authority, whether they agree with it or not. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day kept questioning His authority because they wanted to undermine Him. Yet many of the people responded to Him. “The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:28–29).
What Authority Is Not
    The accepted concepts of authority listed above have nothing to do with real authority, yet the problem is that the majority of the world’s population believes that one or more of these ideas represents authority, and that is why we are experiencing an authority crisis. These false ideas are what many people think of when they hear this word because authority has been defined or modeled for them in distorted ways, and their experience of it has been oppressive, negative, stifling, and even deadly.
    We must understand that authority is not…
dominating others
overpowering others
dictating to others
oppressing