This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Authority over the Believer”, promises that believers who recognize Jesus’s “moral authority” will experience instant, eager obedience based on love, claiming that Christ’s life “created inside” believers produces automatic recognition of his “right to absolute authority” and that God educates people through those who are “holily better.”
Here’s what instant obedience to claimed spiritual authority actually delivered:
“Jesus has absolute authority over believers,” Pastor Robert explained to his leadership training class. “When you truly see the Lord, you can’t help but obey. Resistance to spiritual authority reveals unworthiness. God educates us through people who are ‘holily better’ until we learn proper submission.”
Seminary student Michael embraced this teaching completely. When senior pastors made decisions he questioned, he suppressed his concerns, believing that resistance revealed spiritual immaturity. When church leaders demanded unpaid labor and unquestioning compliance, Michael submitted eagerly, convinced this demonstrated his love for Christ through recognizing moral authority.
For two years, Michael accepted increasingly problematic behavior from church leadership—financial secrecy, emotional manipulation, authoritarian control—because he believed questioning spiritual authority meant rejecting Jesus himself. His instant obedience was supposedly evidence of spiritual growth and recognition of Christ’s worthiness.
But the promised spiritual development through submission was spiritual abuse disguised as discipleship.
Instead of growing in grace, Michael became anxious, spiritually confused, unable to distinguish between legitimate guidance and manipulation. His eager obedience to claimed spiritual authority enabled abuse rather than demonstrating love for Jesus. The moral authority he was recognizing was actually human manipulation using religious language.
Meanwhile, Michael’s friend Sarah approached spiritual community with zero assumption that religious leaders automatically represented Christ’s moral authority. When Sarah encountered controlling religious figures, she evaluated their behavior against principles of healthy leadership and ethical conduct.
Sarah’s approach involved questioning authority figures, seeking multiple perspectives, refusing to submit to demands that violated her conscience or wellbeing. She didn’t believe that spiritual maturity required instant obedience to human leaders claiming divine authority.
When Michael’s church leadership was eventually exposed for financial fraud and emotional abuse, he realized his spiritual submission had enabled harm rather than honoring Christ.
Where was the moral authority that was supposed to be worthy of instant recognition? Where was the spiritual growth that came from obeying those who were “holily better”?
Sarah’s supposedly “unworthy” resistance to problematic authority had protected her from manipulation that Michael’s “worthy” submission had facilitated.
Michael’s breakthrough came when he learned to distinguish between appropriate respect for legitimate leadership and the unhealthy submission that controlling religious figures demand. The moral authority that actually deserved recognition wasn’t claimed divine representation but demonstrated ethical conduct and transparent accountability.
The silence where Christ’s absolute authority was supposed to manifest through human leaders revealed the truth: there was no divine authority operating through spiritual manipulation. Only human power dynamics that required healthy boundaries, not eager submission.
Reflection Question: When has questioning authority been more spiritually healthy than assuming spiritual leaders represent Christ’s moral authority?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 