The Crucial Difference Between Two Kinds of Authority Instituted by God

Two Kinds of Authority: Command and Counsel

The Bible presents two kinds of authority—one with the power of enforced discipline and one without. The former we can call the authority of command; the latter we can call the authority of counsel.

Both the authority of command and counsel should be counted as true authority because God has given its holders the moral right to issue directives that bind the conscience. The difference is that someone with an authority of command also has the right to enforce what’s commanded through the power of discipline. The authority is unilaterally efficacious. It can enforce or make something happen against the will of those being commanded. With an authority of counsel, on the other hand, the power of discipline is dramatically reduced, if not altogether eliminated. It’s not unilaterally efficacious in the same way.

Using Authority Well

Jonathan Leeman

In this condensed version of his book Authority, Jonathan Leeman equips men for the positions of power they hold, explaining attributes of godly leadership in marriage, fatherhood, church, and the workplace.

Consider these three different biblical offices, all of which illustrate an authority of command:

Parents of children in the home: Parents can both require obedience and enforce it. “You will go to bed now.” The Bible summarizes that power of enforcement in one word: the rod.
A civil government or the state: The state, too, can require obedience and enforce it. “You are under arrest.” The Bible also describes its enforcement mechanism in a word: the sword.
Churches or whole congregations: The whole church or congregation can unilaterally enact its will. “The church voted to remove you from membership as an act of discipline.” The single word: the keys.

Yet now let’s turn to husbands and church elders. Both possess an authority of counsel, meaning their directives should bind the conscience, but their power of discipline is drastically reduced, if not eliminated:

Husbands: The Bible calls wives to “submit” to their husbands in the same way that the church submits to Christ (Eph. 5:22, 24). Therefore, a wife should treat her husband’s instruction as conscience binding. That said, does the Bible give the husband any mechanism for disciplining his wife? The answer is no. Not even remotely. In other words, a husband has no right to raise a hand, raise a voice, issue threats, or force his wife to do something against her will. Never!
Elders/pastors: Pastors have authority. They should “command” what they teach and “exhort and rebuke with all authority” (1 Tim. 4:11; 5:7; Titus 2:15). Members, meanwhile, should “obey” and “submit to” to their leaders (Heb. 13:17). Yet a second question follows: Can elders enforce those commands by themselves through excommunication? An elder-ruled church, whether Presbyterian or independent elder-ruled, says yes. The plurality of elders, they believe, have been given the authority to carry out church discipline to enforce biblical commands and obedience. As a Baptist or congregationalist, however, I say no, at least not at the level of formal discipline. The Bible presents congregations and apostles enforcing their decisions through excommunication (see Matt. 18:15–18; Acts 8:20–23; 1 Cor. 5; 1 Tim. 1:20). Never once does an individual pastor or elder excommunicate or otherwise enforce his command. So I believe that an elder or pastor’s authority, too, is an authority of counsel, with the authority of command reserved for the congregation.

To recap, an authority of counsel means that an elder or husband has the moral right from God to insist on a particular direction in a way that binds the conscience, but his power of discipline is drastically reduced, if not altogether eliminated.

	Authority of Command	Authority of Counsel
How they’re the same	Right to issue directives that bind the conscience	Right to issue directives that bind the conscience
How they’re different	Right to enforce through discipline	No right to enforce through discipline
Examples and mechanism of enforcement or discipline	Parents of young children—the rod The state—the sword The church—the keys	Husbands—none Elders—none
Theological emphasis	God’s transcendence	God’s immanence

Someone might question whether an authority of counsel is really authority. Isn’t it just counsel?

In response, I’d say it’s not merely counsel, it’s an authority of counsel, because the wife and church members are morally bound to submit. Plus, an enforcement mechanism does exist; it’s just that the authority figure doesn’t hold it. Jesus does. If we wanted, we could call it an authority of delayed discipline or eschatological discipline.¹

What someone possessing an authority of counsel cannot do is force or enact an outcome, at least not with the same efficacy as someone possessing an authority of command.

This article is adapted from Using Authority Well: A Concise Guide for Men by Jonathan Leeman.

Notes:

That also makes an “authority of counsel” qualitatively different from what people mean when they refer to “moral authority.” Moral authority refers to the idea of giving a person’s words extra weight because of that individual’s character or competence. Ironically, there is nothing morally binding about moral authority. It’s informal, more like influence. The same is true for what people call “epistemic authority” or an “authority of truth,” as when we refer to “medical authorities.” We defer to doctors. It’s generally wise to do so since they’re the experts. But we’re not morally obliged to obey their orders, at least not by biblical mandate.

Jonathan Leeman (PhD, University of Wales) is the president of 9Marks and cohost of the Pastors Talk podcast. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books and teaches at several seminaries. Jonathan lives with his wife and four daughters in suburban Washington, DC, and serves as an elder at Cheverly Baptist Church.

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