How much authority should a pastor have over a church?

Now, if we seek the limitation in the context, that in the case of the two or three is easily seen to be to cases of discipline needed to maintain the Lord's honor in their midst. The assembly does not define doctrine, and has no right to "teach for doctrine the commandments of men." Christ alone is the authoritative Teacher, by His Spirit, and all we are brethren (Matt. 23:8). But the assembly has to maintain by a holy discipline what is due to Him who is Head and Lord, and whatsoever is truly bound in this way is bound in heaven. Here moral conditions also, in the very nature of things, impose a limitation: for to "bind" a saint to do evil cannot be authorized in heaven; and it would be wickedness to maintain this.

When we take this back with us to Simon Peter's case, we shall find similar limitations. The context does not speak of the discipline of an assembly, but of administration in the Kingdom of heaven. This is not the Church, but the sphere of individual responsibility to the Lord, and hence the individuality of the assurance, "thou" not "ye." The connection here is with the keys of the Kingdom, ― with discipling into it: here individual teachers teach, and disciples baptize. There is no limit to any class that Scripture gives us, except the limit of capacity, and no control over others recognized except as all are subject to the common discipline of which we have been speaking.

In these days of creeds and church by-laws and rules, it is necessary to stress the fact that the Holy Scriptures are the all-sufficient guide and sole standard of authority for the Church. Since we have the inspired Word of God with complete instructions as to His mind and path for His people, what need have we of creeds and by-laws? Can man's words state truth more clearly than God's? Surely not. Nothing less than the whole Bible is sufficient for us and nothing more is needed. Also we have the Holy Spirit, the author of that Word, present with us to interpret it to us and to guide in applying it to present day difficulties and conditions. From Matthew 18:17-20, we learn that the Lord has also given authority to the Assembly gathered unto His name to exercise discipline and to bind and loose with heaven's ratification. "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I, in the midst of them." Wherever they may be, the Lord is in their midst and gives His own weight of authority to the two or three gathered unto His name. Their acts are bound in heaven or loosed in heaven as the case may be. They are recognized there as binding and authoritative. This is the authority which the Lord has conferred upon His Assembly, the authority to act for Him in His name on earth. To quote the words of another: "What is the real power, the real source of authority, in discipline? The presence of Jesus: not simply that the discipline is the act of a voluntary society which excludes one of its members from its bosom, but that it is the act of an assembling according to God, assembled in the name of Jesus, and acting in His name and by His authority, to maintain the holiness which belongs to that name. The weight of an assembly's act is not from the individual voice or judgment of its members, but from the Lord's being in the midst of them when gathered together" (J. N. Darby).

And now the "verily" of the Lord. Whatever has been read into these words of binding and loosing by the assembly we pass by. The words simply tell us that the Lord conferred authority to act on the earth for Himself, and the authority is absolute. But to whom does He give this authority? To the disciples, apostles to be conferred by them upon others? Never! That is the unscriptural, man-made doctrine which has displaced the person and the work of Christ, one of Satan's most powerful inventions. The authority is given to the church. He gives the church executive power. She is to act according to His rules laid down and in acting in fullest harmony with the absent Lord and obedient to His Word as well as guided by His Spirit, the action of the assembly is valid in heaven. The Lord sanctions it in heaven, whether it is binding or loosing. If, therefore, anything is done which deviates from His Word and is not according to His mind, He cannot sanction it. The case must be a very plain one. If there is disagreement, diversity of opinion, taking of different sides, it is evidence that the Lord cannot sanction what is done.

A. A meeting of those who addict themselves to the ministry of the saints may rightly consult and decide on matters which concern the Lord's work and the saints, save in such cases as reception or excision, where according to scripture the assembly as such is called to act. But I know nothing of a meeting even of elders which could be said to represent the assembly. There is individual action, joint action, and that of the assembly: each true, and important, and sanctioned of the Lord; but one does not represent another. The assembly is itself and supposes the place of all, brothers and sisters, with the Spirit freely acting in their midst to maintain the glory and will of the Lord. But a meeting of chief men among the brethren is of great value, substantially of the elderhood in principle if not so now in name; for it is mischievous to be ever occupying the assembly with questions, the natural result of men who wish to set the assembly against ministry, and so naturally use it for their own self-importance. But no individuals, however gifted, can act for the assembly, though they may be helpful to the assembly in enabling them to judge before the Lord, and they may morally represent the assembly to the Lord's eye for praise or blame. In general, too, cases of evil, which are rightly brought before all, are so plain as to leave no hesitation. Still there are seasons when the assembly might demand more time or evidence before the extreme act of putting away; nor ought the assembly to be hurried into hasty measures, by individuals, whose sole remedy for all evil (the strongest point of their own lack of wisdom and power) is exclusion. In every instance the assembly should weigh seriously and calmly, but in the sense of its own responsibility to the Lord, not at all as the mere executive of elders or chief men, who are liable to infirmity of various kinds; it has the presence of the Lord to count on in a way quite peculiar and is subject to Him alone. The question of acting forthwith or not depends entirely on the nature of the case; it should never degenerate into a venture but be the fruit of conscientious judgment in liberty before God. To act simply on the judgment of a supposed representative would be presbyterian, not as God's church; to act only for itself would be congregational. It is God's church; and in the present ruin the Lord graciously attaches the same validity even to "two or three" gathered to His name. If representation comes in rightly, it is here; in a certain sense the local assembly represents the church everywhere; and the church everywhere, in all ordinary cases, acts on the judgment of the local assembly. It is the presence of the Lord in their midst which gives it such weight. Church action otherwise is human.

But lest this strong asseveration of his claim to an unfettered discretion as an apostle of Christ should seem to offer occasion to any who, with necks little used to the Master's yoke, were ready to charge His servant with a disposition to lord it over God's heritage, he hastens to anticipate all such imaginings. His words are not those of a master, but of one who had received mercy of the Lord to be faithful (1 Cor. 7:25). Neither he nor his fellows in the ministry had rule over their faith. If faith came, as it did, through their testimony (Rom. 10:17; 1 Cor. 3:5), its object was the Lord, to whom their first obedience was due, and then, for His Name's sake, to those also whom the Lord had sent (1 Cor. 9:1-2; 14:37).

Third. They are warned not to lord it over God's heritage. Not to drive the flock but to lead as "ensamples to the flock."

But if God dwell in the church, He is there to make known His mind, and to set right what is wrong. He is interested in it, faithful, too, and cares for all who trust Him. Discipline, in putting away at least, ought never to be enforced till every means short of this, acknowledged in Scripture and incumbent on the church of God, has been tried and failed; public rebuke, as well as private remonstrance, etc., from suited individuals, might justly precede. Putting away should be the last sorrowful necessity — an act not of any individual, but of the assembly: the reason is wise and good. The best and holiest individuals might, if opposed, have their own minds prejudiced or even their will at work. We ought all to know ourselves better than to desire it to be in the hands of any private individual. It is therefore a great safeguard that the extreme act should be in the hands of the assembly, after individuals, leaders, or other Christians, have failed to bring about repentance.

We shall find that there are various forms or phases of discipline which should go on in the Assembly. Discipline embraces a great deal. In its broad sense it covers the order and government which belongs to God's house. By this term is meant the general exercise of care in the government of His house. It takes in, in this way, the various forms in which that care manifests itself from the simplest forms of brotherly interest and advice to the more public correction and reproof in the Assembly, sometimes resulting in the necessary act of putting away from the Assembly a wicked person.

Discipline must not be thought of as merely an act of the Assembly. It is much more than that. It embraces the instructing of souls in the ways of God, correction, training in obedience, subjection to rule, and all phases of pastoral dealing with souls. The majority of cases of discipline which should be handled in an Assembly should be of a private nature, exercised by overseers and pastoral in character. The exercise of such watchful, shepherd care for the sheep, feeding, guarding, leading, correcting, and reproving in love, is a most important phase of discipline and will often have the result of rendering more severe forms of discipline unnecessary. It is of the utmost importance, then, that such care be exercised in the Assembly. Discipline begins with this.

Overseers and deacons were local officials in the Church and must be distinguished from gifts. Elders and deacons might or might not have the gift of preaching or teaching. Such gift was quite independent of their special office. There might be, and were, many elders and deacons in any given church, and yet there was still the fullest and freest liberty for any one to exercise his gift in ministry when the whole Church came together in one place. Elders were not to preside in a public meeting, but to oversee, feed, and care for the flock of God (Acts 20:28).

There are tens of thousands of the Lord's people who cannot articulate a matter for themselves, who yet can see it the moment it is articulated for them. What then is the business of anyone ministering in the Church, be he apostle or prophet, pastor and teacher, or evangelist, or elder, or anything else? Is it not to articulate what is true in Christ? You first of all learn for yourself what is true in Him, — in your own case, of course, from the Scriptures, and in dependence upon God the Holy Ghost; — then you prove it in your own soul's experience, and then finally you pass it on for the guidance and help of all whom God, by His providence, has placed within your reach. So that authority in the Church in its true sense is not the "ex cathedra" utterance of an ecclesiastic, but the education of Christ's people, their guidance in difficulties, their help in pressure, by the application of a deep knowledge of Christ to a shallow or defective one. This is a hundred times over confirmed in the New Testament. I can quite understand that when as yet there were no Scriptures in circulation, the Holy Ghost was pleased to use apostles and prophets to utter the mind of God, and the truth of Christ for the guidance and edification of the Church. But on their passing off the scene their teachings were preserved by the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God in the form of the Scriptures. "I commend you to God and to the word of His grace" (Acts 20).