Course Objectives

• This lesson is the first session of the six-part video series: Experiencing and Recovery from Spiritual Abuse available in the course catalog by that name. This lesson examines the word translated as authority (exousia) in reference to leaders or believers having “authority over” one another in some way. Common proof texts used to justify believers “ruling over one another” are deconstructed as illegitimate interpretations and applications of the Biblical text. Jesus said the Gentiles rule over one another and it should not be so in the church. Well, how then does “authority” work in the church?