Sorry for not posting this last week. With that head/chest thing I (still) had going on, I just didn’t feel up to typing out anything of substance. So, here’s last week iLife installment, and I’ll do another later this week.
One of the most avoided and misunderstood disciplines in Scripture is that of Submission. Let’s quickly look at a few areas in which the Bible says we are to be living in submission.
- We are to submit ourselves to God according to James 4:7, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1, and Hebrews 12:9.
- We are to submit ourselves to the leaders of our churches according to Hebrews 13:17.
- We are to submit to governmental authorities according to 1 Peter 2:13-14 and Romans 13:1.
- We are to submit to our masters (apply to modern culture) according to Titus 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 2:18.
- Wives are to submit to their husbands according to Ephesians 5:22 and 1 Peter 3:1.
- We are to submit to one another according to Ephesians 5:21.
So what does that really mean? In our modern culture, the idea of submission is highly unpopular. Part of this is because of misconceptions as to what the word means. Take wives submitting to husband for instance. At no time does Scripture ever leave the impression that women are inferior to men, or that women should submit to male authority as superior. Paul taught wives should submit to their OWN husbands as to the Lord. There’s even multiple aspects to this. First a wife should be submissive to a husband’s love as he puts her first as Christ did the church. Second, if the husband is not a believer, she is to submit in love in the hopes they will be won over by the love of Christ. Submission is a love act, not slavery.
In fact, Galatians 3:28 goes a long way in pointing out there is no one inferior to anyone else, whether by gender or race or culture or background. We are all one in Christ.
So what is submission? Submission is to arrange yourself under someone/something in an orderly manner. This is the meaning of the Greek word hupotasso which is used in the New Testament. Biblical submission carries the idea of voluntarily giving up certain rights to another person so to maintain a proper order.
This is exactly what Jesus did when He came to earth. Philippians 2 gives us the very model of submission. The NLT version puts it very succinctly when it says “He gave up His divine privileges.” At no time did Jesus stop being God, He just gave up His divine privileges. He voluntarily gave up certain rights—submitting Himself to the will of the Father—so to restore the proper order in the relationship between God and man.
Jesus coming to earth was an act of submission. Jesus taught submission. Jesus modeled submission.
Submission must become a habit in our own life. We need to develop an attitude that is OK with everything not going the way we want. We can give up our rights—our wants and desires and our rights to them—and yield to someone else so as to maintain proper order.
Status gives way to service. Pride gives way to humbleness. Preserving our rights gives way to doing what is right.
