Authority must arise out of freedom and is only bounded by love. Our freedom is in Christ and no authority should press us otherwise. Even though Paul feels a need to "punish", it is not his preference - nor ours.
Authority is for building up - not for tearing down. Real authority is not simply attaining conformity to some set of rules. Truth must be seen and happily embraced. Nominal obedience alone does not lead to real growth.
Robert Banks outlines this well.
1) all authority stems from God the Father as revealed in his Son Jesus Christ and is mediated by their Spirit;
2) in the prophetic history of Israel, as recorded in the OT scriptures, and in the apostolic development of the church, this authority was decisively present, but the person and the work of Jesus Christ and the message about him enshrined in the apostolic writings are the definite expression of God's will and are normative for all that precedes and follows;
3) through the Spirit God continues to speak and work authoritatively, not through coercion of people's personalities but by convincing their minds of the truth and warming their hearts with love so that they freely embrace it;
4) authority is exercised through the service of others in word and deed, not through their domination, and Jesus is the example par excellence of the way this takes place, since "though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant ..." (Phil 2.6-7);
5) authority is conveyed in this way primarily through the apostles, who still live in their writings, and in differing measure through all Christians, who are instruments of Christ's authority when they manifest Christ to one another according to the ministries given them by the Spirit.
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