The Effective and Ethical Use of Power

Power scares us, especially in religious settings. Many religious leaders do not have the character to be both competent and godly with power. But the answer to misuse is not no use, it is right use.

The New Testament paints a consistent picture of Jesus. It is one in which virtue, love, wisdom and power flow to him by the Spirit and flow through him for edification of others, for their enlightenment, healing or deliverance, as is called for in individual cases.

For instance, in Acts 10:38, Peter, speaking to Cornelius, says: You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him.

In Matthew 4:23, we read a typical summary of Jesus’ ministry: Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 

Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash

Trinitarian power is always aimed at the good. Why did Jesus touch lepers or others who were unclean? He was not worried about becoming unclean himself because, in part, he knew which way the power would flow. The power of disease or ritual uncleanness would not flow to him; power would flow from him, bringing healing as a sign of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom. 

But power scares us, especially in religious settings. We intuit that many religious leaders do not have the character, the virtue, the inner readiness to be both competent and godly with power. But the answer to the misuse of power in the Church is not to run from power or to try to ban power from churchly relations. That would leave all of us unhealed and impotent to be ambassadors of God’s kingdom, unable to carry on the Jesus movement. 

The answer to misuse is not no use, it is right use. 

How do we become the kinds of people who can be trusted with power? We follow the pattern of our Master, Jesus:

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16).

Often suggests that there was a rhythm to Jesus’ life that undergirded his person and ministry, its power and wisdom. In prayer, Jesus, the human being, sought a life with the Trinity from which naturally flowed his ability to use power in redemptive ways. We want this to become true of us: 

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God…

SO…

…he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist…poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him (John 13).

Power is scary: It can inflict evil or deliver from evil. Our close-up knowledge of misuses of power causes many of us to wish that power would simply go away, vanish from human interactions. We surmise that a world without power would be more ethical, more loving, more just.

But we need to rethink power. Power is of God. It is a never-ending part of creation because in God’s loving, wise purposes, he determined it to be so. The question is not: Is power good? The question is: Do I have the inner virtue to stand it? 

This, I think, is the conceptual core:

Power is only made ethical and effective when positioned within and executed in alignment to Jesus’ worldview, which gave rise to Jesus’ manner of being in the world, his ethical use of power. 

This means the effective and ethical use of power is tied directly to the transformation of our soul into Christlikeness. We must both seek appropriate spiritual power and the inner character essential to it. Galatians 5 (the fruit of the Spirit) and 1 Corinthians 12 – 14 (the manifestation of gifts in and through the Church) are the railroad tracks upon which our ministries must run. We want to be like Stephen:

…full of grace and power (Acts 6:8)

If Christ is the head of his body, and if Christians are to be in Christ, then Christ’s power is meant to flow through us—not for our gain, but for the good of others: to heal, liberate, empower and strengthen. As servants of Jesus, we use/share power for the common good of persons who are each uniquely made in the image of God. It is a part of kingdom ministry to give special attention to those with little power and diminished voices. 

Bring to mind the good you feel called to do personally, and as a Church: You want power to be able to do that. Power is simply capacity, ability or agency. When we pray for the ability to make a positive difference in a situation, we are praying for power and authority. 

Jesus knew that the power of his Father was at work in him. His sole priority was to work in harmony with that power, to let it flow through him for the healing of the world.

This is my life’s vision: Daily, moment by moment, I give myself to Jesus. I never tire of it. It is a joy to apprentice myself to Jesus to learn about power, character and love…with the constant prayer that his power and love would lead to me living a life of consistent creative goodness for the sake of others. 

Ask for more power, for more of the capacity to do the good you dream to do in the world. And seek more love, more of the deep-seated desire to bring kingdom-good to others.