How do we properly appeal to someone in authority if he or she asks us to do something unwise or sinful? How do we maintain an attitude of proper submissiveness when challenging or informing a leader that we cannot obey for reasons of conscience? How we handle such situations will say a lot about our understanding of authority and our commitment to maintaining a right relationship with authority for the Lord’s sake.

Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 1 Timothy 5:1 (NASB)  

Obviously, unless we are a Roman Catholic vis-a-vis the Pope, people in authority are not infallible. It is a well-known principle that power corrupts; so, it is likely that the more authority a person has and the less accountability, the greater the probability he or she will abuse that authority.

The Bible commands us to obey delegated authority unless doing so would violate God’s commands or our conscience.

Sin or foolishness on the part of one in authority does not relieve us from our duty to properly submit to authority in general and that person in particular. Such situations test whether we recognize that all authority comes from God, regardless of the frailty or faultiness of the human vessel.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. Romans 13:1-2 (NASB)

The Bible gives us examples of men and women who had to relate to sinful, misguided, or unreasonable authorities. Let’s focus on four.

Daniel

From Daniel we learn to offer an alternative plan to the one to which we object.

Daniel had been taken captive by the Babylonians and was singled out for advanced training and preparation for service to the king. Part of that training required him to eat food that God’s Word forbade him to consume. What was he to do? He could boldly rebel against the command for conscience’s sake and face the consequences like a man, or he could knuckle under, hoping God would understand his predicament. A third alternative would be to resist passively aggressively; that is, he would never voice his complaint but simply would not comply. Daniel was an extremely wise man, however, and took a fourth route which worked for him. He appealed to authority and was granted his request.

Rather than going through the verses (Daniel 1:8-16), which you can do on your own, I will extract the principles.

1. Daniel made up his mind that he would not sin against God by obeying the king’s command. It is important that we have strong convictions when making such an appeal and not mere preferences.
2. He wisely sought to skirt a direct confrontation by asking for permission to be excused from obeying the king’s command. Daniel was not afraid, however. Later in life he directly violated the king’s command not to pray to God, for which an appeal was not possible since the king at that time could not reverse his own command. His disobedience resulted in his being put in a lions’ den overnight.
3. Daniel understood the purpose of the king’s command and offered a counter proposal to achieve the same or better results in a way that would not violate his conscience. The principle here is that we should never just say “no” to a command without offering a wise alternative plan to help the one in authority achieve his or her objectives. If we show that we are committed to the success of the one in authority, it is more likely that he or she will consider our proposal.
4. Daniel asked that his proposal be tested, evaluated, and a decision made accordingly. This recognized the right of the one in authority to be the decision maker.
5. Daniel was careful not to engage the pride of his authority by making a threat of any kind – “Do this or else!” Except in the case when we are commanded to sin, the one in authority needs to know that we will submit to an undesired response.

In the case above, after testing Daniel looked better than the other candidates after being on a diet that conformed to the Law of Moses; so, his request was granted. It should be noted that Daniel’s superior took a risk doing this; so, the favor of the Lord was a big factor, too. However, we may not receive such a blessed outcome.

Esther

Esther appealed to her husband the king because a high-ranking enemy who was close to the king had devised a plan to destroy her people, the Jews, with the king’s unwitting approval. She may have been able to escape this destruction, since her Jewishness was not known at the time, but how could she passively concede to the obliteration of her people? This perilous situation required delicacy and great wisdom on her part.

From Esther we learn the art of wisely crafting an appeal.

She would only get one shot at changing the course of events; so, she had to make the most of it. This may be our case, too.

She used her leverage with the king as his beloved wife and queen to gain an audience with the king. She then excited his interest by delaying the presentation of the details of her appeal until the perfect time. She prepared a great feast for her husband-king before making her appeal, putting him in the best frame of mind to grant her request. She was also wise enough to make the law that Haman had devised to wipe out the Jews look as evil as possible by setting up a situation in which the king had to make a choice between her and Haman, an easy choice for him to make.

Nathan the Prophet

Another wisely crafted appeal to authority was made by Nathan the prophet to King David after the latter had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband to cover it up. Whether or not the public was aware of David’s sin, news of it had at least reached Nathan. As God’s representative to David, he felt the responsibility to confront the king to hopefully bring him to repentance. David had the authority to execute Nathan; so, the prophet was taking his life into his hands.

By crafting a story that excited David’s sense of injustice, he got David to unwittingly condemn his own behavior.

He sprung the trap by revealing that he had done what made him so angry at the imaginary someone else. Let’s read the passage.

So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. 2 The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. 3 The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. 4 One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.” 5 David was furious. “As surely as the Lord lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! 6 He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. 9 Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. 10 From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own. 11 “This is what the Lord says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. 12 You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.” 13 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. 14 Nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the Lord by doing this, your child will die.”  2 Samuel 12:1–14 (NLT) —

If Nathan had barged into David’s presence and confronted him without getting David to see his sin through the story, the results may not have been very good. When we need to confront someone, especially someone in authority, why not ask God, the wisest, kindest, most loving, and most truthful person, to show us the best way to do it?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

A last example is also found in the book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were friends of Daniel and Babylonian officials of high rank who outrightly refused to bow to the golden idol of Nebuchadnezzar, even though the punishment was death. When the king gave them one last chance, here is the account of their response.

“Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. 17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”  Daniel 3:15–18 (NASB95) —

In this case, there was no polite way to refuse a direct command from an obdurate king to commit idolatry. Peter replied to the Jewish leaders who commanded him to stop preaching the gospel, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) In such cases, we should strive to maintain a properly submissive manner and tone when making a stand of conscience. When forced into such a corner, our refusal will carry a bad enough consequence without our making it worse by having a bad attitude. Peter later wrote the following:

But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 17 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.  1 Peter 3:14–17 (NASB95) —

When making an appeal to authority, whether we can use a little honey to make our appeal more palatable or must be confrontive, it is important to keep in mind that our attitude is important because we serve God, the one behind all authority.

The art of making an appeal to authority is one of the most important skills we may ever acquire and deserves our utmost attention and consideration. Whenever we may need to make such an appeal, let’s ask God for the wisdom and correct heart attitude, whether it goes as we desire or not.

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

• Have you ever had to make an appeal to authority? How did it turn out? Did you handle it wisely?
• Have you ever been the one in authority to whom an appeal was made? Did you grant the request? Was it handled wisely?