A close friend said that submitting to just even one person in the whole world was too much for her sometimes. I completely related to that that. Ephesians 5:21 says “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” and then the next verse is a difficult verse for our culture. “Wives submit to your own husbands as unto the Lord.” The Apostle Paul, under the authority of the Holy Spirit, tells us that we are to submit to one another: that wives are to submit to their husbands: and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, giving himself for her. All of these are different ways of saying that we are to submit.
Our problem is that we do not like to submit to anyone unless they are already telling us the thing that we wanted to do anyway. We do not like submitting to the government unless the government is telling us to live our lives freely.
What are we supposed to do about submission as Christians? Become open to submission. Begin to agree with God that submission to others and to the Lord is good for us and is God’s will. Do you have someone to submit to in your life? Is there a boss in your life who tells you what to do and you do it without grumbling and complaining?
Someone tonight at Bible study questioned why submission is so important, and I realized that submission is an essential value of our faith: that we would agree with what God says is best for us, and then we would submit to what he wants for us. In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve had one rule and one authority figure in their life, and they didn’t submit. In Christ we have a son who set aside his authority and became obedient (submissive) to death on a cross. Jesus believed in the father’s plan to save the world. Do I? Do you?
