Sunday Sermons
Spiritual Disciplines - Part 6: Submission
Spiritual Disciplines VI
Submission
When some hear the word “submission” they immediately react in a defensive way, yet we have already seen in this series that every discipline has a corresponding freedom. For example, prayer brings with it freedom from anxiety and helplessness. Meditation brings freedom from limited human wisdom, trial and error living, ignorance and superstition. “What freedom corresponds to submission? It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today. People will spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because some little thing did not go as they wished. They will fuss and fume. They will get mad about it. They will act as if their very life hangs on the issue. They may even get an ulcer over it” (Foster p. 111).
“Self-denial means the freedom to give way to others. It means to hold other’s interests above our interests (Philippians 2:3-4). In this way self-denial releases us from self-pity. When we live outside of self-denial, we demand that things go our way. When they do not, we revert to self-pity, ‘Poor Me!’ Outwardly we may submit but we do so in a spirit of martyrdom. This spirit of self-pity is a sure sign that the Discipline of submission has gone to seed. This is why self-denial is the foundation for submission; it saves us from self-indulgence” (Foster p. 114). “Do you know the liberation that comes from giving up your rights? It means you are set free from the seething anger and bitterness you feel when someone does not act toward you the way you think they should. It means that at last you are able to break that vicious law of commerce that says, ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back”(Foster p. 113). “The Epistles first call to subordination those who, by virtue of the given culture, are already subordinate. The revolutionary thing about this teaching is that these people, in whom first-century culture afforded no choice at all, are addressed as free moral agents. Paul gave personal moral responsibility to those who had no legal or moral status in their culture. He made decision-makers of people who were forbidden to make decisions” (Foster p. 118). That is, God calls upon wives to be subject to husbands and slaves to masters and children to parents, and citizens to kings, not because they are inferior or second class citizens, and not because of some caste system, but because it is fitting in the Lord (Colossians 3:18).
True Inward Submission
Outward submission is far easier than true submission. Peter, for example, called upon the slaves of his day to live in submission to their masters (1 Peter 2:18). The counsel seems unnecessary until we realize that it is quite possible for servants to obey their masters without living in a spirit of submission to them. Outwardly we can do what people ask yet inwardly be in rebellion against them. We see the same thing in other passages: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1); “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22); “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). The statement “in the Lord” means, “The implication rather is that Christian wives' submission to their husbands is one aspect of theirobedience to the Lord” (Bruce p. 384). To whom do women, children and workers chiefly owe their liberation? Is it not to Jesus Christ? It is Jesus Christ who treated women with courtesy and honor in an age in which they were despised. It is Jesus Christ who said, ‘Let the children come to me. That is, we submit, not because the people to whom we submit are superior to us, but rather because Jesus requests that we submit. Rightly stated, our submission in various human relationships, parents, spouses, government, and the elders, is an outgrowth of our obedience to Jesus. God is saying, “These people need your cooperation, help, and service, help them because I am requesting it”. This is why the servants in 1 Peter 2:18 can still submit to masters who are mean spirited. We are making a mistake if we refuse to submit claiming that such a person does not deserve our cooperation, the submission is done for Jesus and not solely for the person who benefits.
Jesus Our Example
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45); “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He become poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9); “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant…He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8); “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
From the above passages it is clear that Jesus practices what He commands of others. Why should I submit to others and serve them? Because Jesus humbled Himself and died for me! “For the love of God controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). When Paul considered what had actually happened, what had really taken place upon Calvary, He was compelled to reach the conclusion, that such a demonstration of completely unselfish love, morally, and ethically demanded, that he could no longer live a life in which "self" was the center. Paul could not have lived with himself; his conscience would not have permitted him to live a selfish life! He just could not get comfortable with sin. He could not get near it; he could not defend it. In view of what Jesus did, sin had become extremely repulsive to Paul. The death of Christ was meant to deliver us also from our narrow little world of ourselves. To open our eyes to the fact that many others need our time and help. To make us realize that true life is more important than having a good time, being entertained, or being comfortable.
Submission Without Self-Hatred
Often submission is twisted into something like, “I am worthless”. On the contrary, Jesus calls us to self-denial without self-hatred. “Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want” (Foster p. 113). Jesus noted, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34). Self-denial is linked with following Jesus, serving Him and others, not some twisted form of self-hatred. In fact, submission is the only possible way to true fulfillment, “Whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it” (Mark 8:35). In fact, for Jesus to require slaves to be in submission to masters who are cruel is evidence that submission, far from being a mark of worthlessness, is an attribute of greatness. This is the way that the apostles viewed their suffering, that is, if God wanted them to be faithful, even in the face of persecution, such a command was actually a compliment, for God knew they were capable of a such a great faith (Acts 5:41 “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name”).
Submission applies to everyone, men as well as women, fathers as well as children, masters as well as slaves. “We are commanded to live a life of submission because Jesus lived a life of submission, not just because we are in a particular place or station in life. Self-denial is a posture fitting for all those who follow the crucified Lord” (Foster p. 117).
Submission to the Will of God
“I hope you understand that Jesus’ obedience flowed out of His intimacy with the Father. Often the idea of obedience conjures up in our minds a hierarchical world of impersonal superiors issuing inane orders that we must obey even if we find no rhyme or reason for them. But Jesus’ obedience, and consequently ours, is of a different quality altogether. It is an obedience that flows out of the intimacy that cries, ‘Abba! Father!’ There is an inner knowing that God’s ways are not only right but also good. Knowing by experience the goodness and rightness, we concur with the will of God. It is no order to obey but a divine yes to follow. The word obedience comes from a Latin root that means ‘to listen’” (Foster p. 230). What this means is that service and submission to the needs of others can be joyful, because we know that a love for Christ moves us to serve others. “Vainglory, manipulation, coercion are all gone. We can disregard our obsession about the results of our service, since the divine nod of approval is completely sufficient. We can be fully present to people because we know we are living in obedience” (Foster p. 231).
Practical Applications
There is the submission to God and Scripture as the final authority, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29; 4:19-20). We are eager to surrender our bodies, minds, and souls into the hands of God to further His purposes. As we read Scripture, we gladly conform our lives and thinking to what is being read. There is a submission to family. Someone noted that the motto for the household should be, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). Parents serve and submit to the needs of their children by providing purposeful leadership, children need wise counsel and concrete guidelines (Ephesians 6:4). They need loving and compassionate discipline. Parents serve their children by giving them the ability of self-government. We serve them by introducing them to God and by being available to answer their questions. Children submit and serve their parents by manifesting respect (Ephesians 6:1). There is submission in the local congregation. Elders serve the congregation by praying for them, guiding them, and instructing them (Acts 20:28). The members serve the elders by glad cooperation and support (Hebrews 13:17). All in a position of leadership, whether husbands, elders, or parents, need to remember that leadership is an office of servanthood. Those who take up the mantle of leadership do so for the sake of others, not for their own sake, “And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave” (Matthew 20:27). There is submission to the world, which is demanded by sharing the gospel with others and helping those in need. Included in this is to help those that the world might ignore, the “widows and orphans” (James 1:27), the broken, defenseless and downtrodden(Matthew 25:35-36).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.ch-of-christ.beaverton.or.us/mdunagan@easystreet.com
