Walking in Spiritual Wisdom

Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ

This was the phrase that Paul used in v. 21 of ch. 5 and from this phrase we will expand to see more of what he means when he calls us to “submit to one another.” But before we get into anything first lets notice we are to submit “in the fear of Christ” or in “The reverence to Christ.” What does that mean? It means that our submission in human relationships is in response to our submission first to Jesus. And, even more so, it is imitation of Jesus that we submit.

Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus submitted to His Father’s will and took “the form of a servant.” That means “however you think a slave deserves to be treated…that is how Jesus was treated.”

But why did Jesus “submit to His Father in this way?” Jesus is God, Jesus is in fact equal to God the Father and the Spirit. But Jesus ROLE as the Son means that He submits to the will of the Father.

1. Authority does not equal value

There are many people who have issues with capitalism, who say that capitalism values some over others, that it leads to inequality within society, that it is the root of our issues. And certainly capitalism has its issues. But what’s funny to me is that many people who have issues with capitalism argue for equality based on authority. If this person and this person are to be equal than it means equal opportunity to authority. Which ironically defines the value of a person based on the authority that they have. Because inherently that is what we think. “If that person is the boss and I have to listen to them then it means they are more valuable.” or “If I want to be MORE valuable then I need a better job then the one I have.”

-What Jesus shows us is that authority has nothing to do with value. Than Jesus, who was God, submitted to one He was the equal to. And on earth, He submitted to those he was greater than. Because He knew that none of that defined His value. So the first misconception I want you to get rid of is that if you don’t have a certain authority it means you are less valuable, because Jesus shows us that we are to humble ourselves like He did.

Paul will talk about several types of relationships of which we are to personally act in certain ways. But what is true is that before God people of every race, class, culture, sex, and age are equal in the sight of God. None are inferior to the other. That because someone has an “office” or “title” does not make the person greater than another. In fact, the opposite is true. In the Beatitudes it tells us the humble, the poor in Spirit, those who suffer will be the ones who inherit the kingdom of God not the powerful and the mighty.

2. Submitting to authority means you believe that God is good and just

God has ordered humanity and established roles within society. To submit to these authorities is to humbly recognize God’s divine ordering of society.

In an age of liberation having an “authority” over you is considered oppression, people resent having a “boss”.

-Behind some of these are some true statements. Power corrupts, authority sometimes exploits those under it, mastery over another individual is cruel and unjust.

-There have also been times that in the name of Christian authority that people have been abused, that oppression has occurred, that exploitation has occurred.

-But God has dignity of people in mind in His laws, God has good things in mind when He calls us to submit to authority. It is for our benefit.

In fact, God calls those with authority to a HIGHER standard of obedience. There are many places in the Bible where it says that government authorities, pastors, employers, husbands, and parents will have to give an account for the way they lead those under them.

3. Obey God before man

This means both when they ask you to break God’s law or sometimes when they break the law against you.

We always submit to God’s law first then man’s law second.

Marriage is...

A reflection of God’s character

Wives submit to husbands “as to the Lord” . They are to submit to husbands as the “church submits to Christ.

-Why are wives called to submit? Well that is the way that God ordered creation. 1 Timothy says that God made Adam first and then Eve and that Eve was born out of Adam, so God established it from the beginning to be this way.

-This is a reminder that God made men and women and He made them equal in value, but with different roles within marriage, one that complements the other.

-A translation of Genesis 2 is that God made Adam an “ally”, some say “helper”. But here is what we know, these terms are terms used for how God is our ally and He helps us. So for a wife to be an “Ally” of her husband” is to act in a godly way.

-so to submit to a husband is to love him and put confidence in his desire to love you.

Husbands love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.”

-So we see here that headship is about care for one’s spouse and not control, it is responsibility rather than ruling over.

-So to submit to a husband is to accept his care for you rather than an oppressive ruler.

-In fact, a husband will give himself up for her so that his wife may develop fully as God desires for her and for her to find her completeness not in him but in Christ.

A principle, not a cultural idea

What “headship” and “submission” look like will be different in many different cultures. But the principle itself doesn’t change. Many people want to make it cultural, that in our society today that it can’t work this way, but that is to misunderstand what God is saying.

We understand that marriage is a partnership or a covenant, that both have a role to play, and they can’t play identical roles. Each has distinctive attributes within a relationship, God intended for this to be good. In our cultural setting, this is often seen as oppressive. But in the 1st Century this would actually have been giving women right in the household that didn’t exist. Women had no legal rights in Roman society, she was a possession of her husband. Men also had no repercussions if they committed adultery against his spouse, but God ordains for a man to be faithful to his wife. But here Jesus is telling the husband that He is to lay Himself down for his wife.

Now in our culture it leads us to something else that is countercultural, that there is one that has authority over the other. What does that look like? Why is it important? One example, is that often in marriage you will have to make difficult choices, choices that you will often disagree about. Maybe one of you gets a job offer and it is going to move you away from where you are currently living. Both of you have feelings about one choice or another, about where it would take you, what it would pay, if it will be nearer or closer to family. But at the end of the day one of you needs to make a choice on if it will be made or not. A husband can also say “this doesn’t affect me the way that it affects you so you make the choice you feel God is leading you to and I will support you.”

Now what Genesis 3 tells us is that because of the fall we will feel challenged in our ability to perform these roles. Men will feel the tug to be passive, to not do the work God has called them to, to allow their wife to make whatever choice they want. While wives will desire to take authority from the husband, to be autonomous from him, and to do things her own way.

So no matter the culture, this is still important.

Parents and children

We just talked about “submission” but Paul says here “obey” which shows that a parent has a different level of authority over a child than over a spouse. One is voluntary, the other is necessary. But why?

Is right

It means that in the ordering of society it is a good thing for children to obey parents. To respect those who seek to care for you, to honor those have sacrificed to you. Throughout culture we can see that this is something that is true, regardless of if they are Christian culture or not.

And in the Bible, one key example that is used when talking about the corruption of a society when they get to the “last days” is that children are disobedient to parents. Why do you think that is? Because that is the first way that we as people learn to respect authority and to leave in a society with rules. But if we can’t abide by the authority as children, we will certainly not do so when we are adults and we have a choice. Therefore, it is RIGHT to do this, regardless on if you think you should or not, it is for the benefit of society that we have this call to obey parents.

For your benefit

But also, for children it is also a benefit because in doing so God gives us a promise. That it will benefit the rest of our life. That it will lead us to have a better understanding of the world, to have wisdom, to be those who have respect for others. And naturally, obeying parents often keeps us out of danger when we don’t always understand the consequences. Often it seems parents just want to ruin our fun but many times they are seeking to do something for your benefit.

Now children, as your parent seek to teach you God’s commands. Don’t just hear what your parents say, LISTEN to what they say. Because when you need it most is when you will want to remember what they told you. - Proverbs 3:1-4

Remember that Paul identified that the commandment to “honor your father and mother” is the first commandment with a promise. The promise given is that “it may go well with you and that you may enjoy a long life on the earth”. Listening to your parents is for YOUR benefit.

Often we will hear what they say and we can even repeat back to them what they said, but we don’t care to understand what they said.

I’m going to use Joe here as my guinea pig.

Jamie’s mom has three children. One is named quarter, the second is dime. What is the name of her third child?

Okay, let’s try that again. Jamie’s mom has three children. One is named quarter, the second is named dime, what is the name of her third child?

See the difference between listening and hearing is the assumptions that we come too before we even start the conversation. If you believe your parents are going to be wrong and you are right before you even begin then that is what you are going to get out of the conversation. You will make mistake after mistake and be confused about what you are getting wrong. Because when your parents give you the information you need you aren’t listening.

God has given us parents for a reason. There is so much that you can learn from them! Because the older you get the more you learn that there is so much you have no idea about. For example, the first time that I got my own apartment I didn’t know what I got myself into. My dad had probably given me this information a hundred times but I didn’t listen. There is a downpayment, you need a cosigner, you need a credit score, you need to figure how to contact the electric company, your wifi provider. If you have never been taught this, or failed to listen, then you will be like me and not sure what you are doing!

Any of you who are in middle school and high school...you were probably lost at downpayment, but that is the point!

It will be right and for the parents benefit if they lead their children in humility and in the truth.

Wise parents don’t over-burden their children, they don’t have short fuses, they don’t watch their every move. Rather they train and instruct. Training and instructing shows hand on training led by passive watching that helps a child learn. And this requires patience as you watch a child make mistakes. Sometimes it can be easy to be impatient as a parent. Watching a child try to get their clothes on, or make a mess while they are eating, or try and clean up can be really frustrating. But you are trying to teach them which means you have to watch and not intervene sometimes.

-This also means when there is discipline you do so in love, but it also means that you give punishment that is appropriate even when the child doesn’t believe it is. Because kids without consequences will learn when they are older that at some point there are consequences.

But they also raise children in the “instruction of the Lord” that means that they seek to train kids in godliness and in God’s Word.

Slaves and masters

Often when we think of slavery we think of chattel slavery, but this was much more like employment. People like doctors, teachers, those who were educated, and those who did manual labor were all slaves. It is estimated that in the Roman Empire there were 60 Million slaves. It would be like working for a company. Although certainly there were those who were acquired because they had a debt, or because they were prisoners of war.

Notice, at no point is slavery condoned. Rather, it shows how one is to act in the circumstances they find themselves in. We can certainly say that slavery in every form, where compulsive servitude and necessary and the ownership of another takes places, is wrong. But for us to judge this world, and even what Paul says is to forget that we ourselves allow for exploitation.

(I got this from someone named Esau McCaulley, if you want to learn more about this issue look his name up and he says a lot of smart things on this subject).

How many of you have a cell phone or a tablet or a tablet? How many of you have TikTok? How many of you try and find the cheapest thing you can when you go to the store? How many of you wear shoes? You have now perpetuated slavery, because most likely it was made in China where there are people who enslaved, children who are endangered, and people who are underpaid for the work that they are doing so that you can have that thing in your hand.

-What do we do as Christians with these things? We find ways to calm our consciouses while pointing our fingers at point. But one day people will look back at us and say “how did these Christians allow this to happen?”

-”We can’t imagine an economy that isn’t structured with the exploitation of others.

“What Paul is dealing with is more complicated than we give him credit for.”

-But then we look at what Paul did when He had power. He intervenes on behalf of the enslaved person and says to set Him free. And in 1 Corinthians 7 tell slaves to get free if they can do so. We also see Paul talk to a Christian who is a slave owner telling him to free Philemon. But then he also is trying to wrestle with a world where slavery is the economic reality.

-Paul believed the Gospel had an impact on this.

-The Bible as a whole creates a disposition of reality that leads to liberation.

God has put it over you

1 Peter 2:11–25 “Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits. Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves. Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Household slaves, submit to your masters with all reverence not only to the good and gentle ones but also to the cruel. For it brings favor if, because of a consciousness of God, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly. For what credit is th…”

We always work to the best of our ability, not matter the circumstance

Recognize one day you will have authority and be called to treat others as equal