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Thursday, April 7, 2016
Positional authority, gives you the power over people to force them; but moral authority gives you the power to influence them. When you have positional authority, you can twist arms, but when you have moral authority you are able to influence the hearts and minds of people. There are those who are born into positions of authority, thus giving them positional authority and there are others who work hard to attain it. Nobody however, is born with moral authority. Moral authority is something that develops over time through character and integrity. You will never attain moral authority without character, its main ingredient.

Nehemiah left Persia and arrived at Jerusalem in the capacity of appointed Governor of Judah; this appointment, afforded him a wide range of positional authority. However, for the sake of rebuilding the walls, and out of sheer respect for God, Nehemiah over this twelve-year period chose to forgo any of the perks and privileges associated with his position as Governor. Nehemiah believed, that if he was going to ask the people to sacrifice their time and treasure, then he should lead by example. This act eventually caused Nehemiah to become a person with an influence that far exceeded the power he had as a result of his positional authority.

Nehemiah 5:15-16 NIV

But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels[a] of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall.

Sadly, statistics demonstrate that Christianity’s moral authority has been shrinking throughout the world and as a result, our ability to influence the world has also decreased. This has nothing to do with imperfection and everything having to do with a character flaw or deficiency. Often times, what we say does not match up with what we do. And for this reason, we are paying a hefty price. Not only are we being affected on a global scale, but as parents, friends, ministers, and businessmen we are paying the price in this more intimate and personal setting. It is imperative that we regain our influence and the only way to accomplish this is to commit to building character.

When building our character, the questions then become: who determines the guidelines and who determines what is right from wrong? Who is responsible for determining what privileges we should voluntarily sacrifice? Who determines what character is? God was the standard by which Nehemiah measured what his character should be. In order to build character, we need to understand that the process begins with a commitment to do what is right as determined by God. That means when it is convenient to do so and when it is not convenient, when it is easy and when it is difficult, when you like it and when you do not like it and when you want to and when you do not want to. Nehemiah conducted himself in accordance with God’s standards and not the standards associated with his position as Governor.

As Christians, we are not called to force people, we have been called to influence them. This can only be achieved when we are ready to prioritize character over blessing, and focus on who we are becoming as opposed to what we stand to gain by what we are doing.