LET us remember, if we have been cast for the Lord’s name out from a place, where we have been under the authority of the governing power, not to re-enter it, so that we may not again be placed in the position from which we have been freed. The relationship has been broken by the authority itself, and if we have left it by the will of God, by returning we place ourselves anew under abandoned authority; and if this be contrary to that of the Lord Jesus, under which we came when liberated from human authority, we re-establish over us the authority which had been destroyed, and thus strife begins between the authority of Christ over us, and that which we have abandoned. It is impossible to go on well thus. We were free under the authority of Christ, free to do His will; and we have returned to the authority which prohibits obedience to Christ.
For example, suppose that a son or a daughter has been driven from home for the Lord’s name; by this act the parents have renounced their authority. If this son returns to his father’s house, he places himself under paternal authority, and what can he do when his parents oppose the faith of Christ? He is powerless; and moreover, has so lost his liberty, as to renew over himself the authority which opposes that of Christ, has given up the latter to return to that which is contrary to it. J. N. D.
(From “Meditations on Acts,” chap. 21).