[metmom]

St Paul must not have gotten the memo on that, if one is to judge from his repeated directions to the erring assemblies to straighten up and fly right.

And any one of us can do that for another brother or sister in Christ because the compass is Scripture.

There doesn't have to be a hierarchical authority structure for believers to admonish one another to live according to Scripture.

Each one of the seven churches in the book of Revelation had different issues and Jesus addressed them individually. There was no one centralized authority that Jesus talked to or put them under.

[don-o]

And any one of us can do that for another brother or sister in Christ because the compass is Scripture.

You can absolutely do that. You can also ignore the first millennium and the Ecumenical Councils, modeled on Acts 15, for defining dogma. You can assert that you have correct belief concerning the two natures of Christ in one Person from Bible study.

You could not have done that in 325. It was all up in the air.