Submission- the Key to Harmony

I’ve been thinking on the importance of understanding and practicing submission. “Submission is the key to unity and harmony in human relationships.”

Submission should start within the home and move outward from there. God gives clear “submission guidelines” for each member of a family. “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged,” (Colossians 3:18-21). If wives would determine to submit to God through submission to their husbands... husbands determine to submit to God by loving their wives... children be trained to submit to God by obeying their parents... and fathers (as well as mothers) submit to God by not provoking their children, then families would live together in much better harmony.

In order to understand the broader concept of submission, we must, first and foremost, submit ourselves to God. James 4:6-7 tells us, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” In other words, when we act in humble obedience to God’s word… choosing submission to Him... Satan’s temptations can have no power over us.

Not only must we be subject to the law, but we must also be subject to one another as employees and employers. “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him” (Ephesians 6:5-9). We can replace the word “bondservants” with “employees” and “masters” with “employers” in order to apply it to today. Scripture is telling us to be in submission to one another (in and out of the workplace) by living according to God’s will, in order to please Him in all that we do. Romans 12:10 reads “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Not only must we be submissive toward those in authority over us, but God tells us (through His word) that we must also be, “submitting to one another out-- of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Submission to one another must always be in the context of scripture’s teaching, however. If someone sees us acting in disobedience to scripture’s teaching and corrects us, we are to acknowledge that wrong and repent of it. If, however, someone suggests we must obey them... when their commands are clearly against the teaching of scripture... then we must choose to “obey God rather than men,” (Acts 5:29). If, first and foremost, our desire is to be submissive to God, then obedience to scripture’s teaching must be top priority.

Jesus is our perfect example. In humble obedience to the Father, He was able to place the interests of others ahead of His own. Philippians 2:1-4; “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus demonstrated perfect submission to His Heavenly Father by doing what was pleasing to him, “Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him,” (John 8:28-29). If we are true disciples of Christ, we must follow the example our Lord set for us just before His crucifixion. “And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done,” (Luke 22:41-42).