(1). ' If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all".
Man is a social being, created to live in society ( like God). No man can survive if left alone, hence the saying ' No man is an island '. Society could be domestic, ecclesial or civil. For any society to survive, there must be laws governing it.
Without society, no one can develop all his talents and achieve his highest aims. He who created man also created society and placed man in it.
(2). Some liberal philosophers had taught that in the beginning, men were not living in society. These men, especially Jean Jacques Rousseau, taught that the first men lived in a state of nature- a state of absolute anarchy - where anything goes - a state of survival of the fittest.
After a long time spent in this state according to them, men decided to come together and form a society, making binding rules to govern their behaviour which all of them endorsed. This is what is referred to as " social Contract ". So according to their teaching, civil society came from the will of man, not from God. But they are wrong!
(3). There is no society without an " Authority ". Both came from the same source- from God.
Authority is the soul of the society. It is the unifying principle that coordinates the wills of individuals a d directs them to one end- which is the Common Good; just as the human soul harmonises the various members of our body and makes them work towards one end which is life.
Without Authority, an aggregation of people may be a crowd but not a society. In Matt12:25, Our Lord said that ' every kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. ' Now every society without authority is doomed to be divided against itself and must fall. It therefore follows that there was never a society without an authority.
Those who teach that society comes from man also teach that power comes from the people - or Democracy! (Which is a lie) . The same people teach that the world, human beings all the visible things came through EVOLUTION. They are completely wrong!
The human society is made up of different classes of people :
Old and Young | Rulers and the ruled
Rich and Poor | Intelligent and dull
Sick and healthy | Good and wicked
The Authority co-ordinates all these to a fruitful goal.
(4). As there are different societies, so there are different kinds of authority. Examples are:
a. Religious Authority - Power resides in the Pope and Bishops
b. Civil Authority - Power resides in the Heads of Government, their Ministers, Legislative Assemblies etc.
c. Domestic Authority - Power resides in the parents, especially the father.
####CIVIL AUTHORITY IN THE PAGAN WORLD (Monkey dey work, Baboon dey chop).
Among the pagans at the time of Christ authority was generally considered as a lordship. The Head of state was free to dispose at win, the life and goods of his subjects. Then people were not merely subjects but more like property, slaves or herds.
The citizens and all they possessed belong to the rulers . The people must labor to satisfy the King. Also the religious of the King is automatically the religion of his subjects.
That was the time an Emperor like Caligula wished that the people had only single head so that he might amuse himself by cutting if off! Some rulers kill whole villages to satisfy a mere spite or ambition or even unjust anger .
Conclusion :
If you find yourself in any position of authority - family/ state/ always put it in your mind that you are a representative of God whose authority you exercise. Note this that after our exile you are going to give every account of what you do to him.
@pejugold