John 1:25

This verse captures a tense interrogation scene in the Gospel of John. Jewish religious leaders — priests and Levites sent by the Pharisees (a strict religious group) — were questioning John the Baptist, a prophet who had appeared in the wilderness calling people to repent and baptizing them in the Jordan River. They had specific categories they were working from: the Messiah (Christ — the promised deliverer), Elijah (a great prophet who was expected to return before the Messiah came), and 'the Prophet' (a figure Moses had predicted in Deuteronomy 18). John had denied being any of these. So their follow-up is pointed: if you're not one of these authorized figures, what gives you the right to baptize people at all?

God, I confess I often need people to have the right credentials before I'll really listen. Loosen my grip on my categories. Give me the discernment to recognize your voice — wherever and through whomever it comes. Amen.

The religious establishment wasn't entirely wrong to ask. Baptism wasn't a casual ritual — it was a declaration loaded with theological weight, and they needed credentials. They had a checklist of legitimate figures, and John didn't match any of them. Just a voice, he'd said. Just someone pointing. Their frustration is understandable, really. They were trying to protect the integrity of something sacred, and here was this wild man in the desert doing something significant with zero recognizable authority. But God has a long history of working through people who don't fit the expected categories. The question these leaders kept asking — "who authorized you?" — can become a way of filtering out exactly what God is doing. You might have your own version of that checklist: the right denomination, the right credentials, the right platform. When someone doesn't check your boxes, it's worth pausing before you dismiss them. Not everything that's unfamiliar is false. Sometimes discernment means asking not just "who sent you?" but "is what you're saying true?"