Biblical Submission

In our last teaching we began a section of Scripture in 1 Peter that addresses the biblical subject of submission. One of the definitions of the word submission means "to place in order". As we learned, another definition is that it was used in the military to describe the submission of a soldier in lesser rank to one in a higher rank. One thing that most believers overlook whenever we study the topic of submission is this: We tend to focus on the institution or person that we are called to submit to instead of the One who is the head of all principality and power.

Ultimately, every time Christians are called to submit we are in reality submitting to God, regardless of the institution, personality or character of the individual. The only exception to any level of submission is when the individual or government in authority commands you to disobey God, as was the case with the Hebrew midwives, the 3 Hebrew children, Daniel or the apostles in the book of Acts. Today we are going to tackle the topic of wives submitting to their husbands as unto the Lord and husbands submitting to God in how they are to love their wives like Christ loves the church.

To say that Jesus “entrusted” Himself to God at the end of chapter 2 and to say that holy women of old “hoped” in God means the same thing. They submitted themselves to God by submitting to the authority that He placed in their lives. Although there is an ontological spiritual equality between men and women, there remain physical, positional and functional differences. There are designated functions for a husband and a wife which man cannot change because God has ordained them. Any endeavor to effect change will bring frustration, vanity, and emptiness, for the simple reason that God did not create us unisex, but male and female.

Beloved, the number one enemy of submission to God is SELF! The opposite of submission to God is rebellion. So as I “walk the plank” of addressing the subject of submission to God in marriage, I can tell you right now that what God has to say is not popular in our culture that cannot even tell us who is a male and who is a female anymore. Beloved, submission to God isn’t about you or your husband. Submission in a Christian marriage is all about you and your relationship to God, which is why I’ve been saying it for 40 years and it’s as true today as it was then. Any relationship conflicts or causes of disruption or disturbances in a Christian marriage stem from disobedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The late Tim Keller wrote, "When you come to Christ, you must drop your conditions. You have to give up the right to say, ‘I will obey you if . . . I will do this if . . .’ As soon as you say, ‘I will obey you if,’ that is not obedience at all. You are saying: ‘You are my adviser, not my Lord. I will be happy to take your recommendations. And I might even do some of them.’ No. If you want Jesus with you, you have to give up the right to self-determination. Self-denial is an act of rebellion against our late-modern culture of self-assertion. But that is what we are called to. Nothing less.” SELAH