On Christian Submission
Notes
Transcript
Submission is an interesting thing. Of all of the things that people misunderstand about Christians, submission might be one of the biggest.
I have two stories that demonstrate this.
A few years ago, former football player Tim Tebow, when he was still single - and America’s heartthrob, was asked what qualities he would desire to have in a future wife? He responded by stating that looks are important and that he would want “to find a woman that he was attracted to” he also stated “I would want a wife who is sweet and has a servant’s heart.” Some on the internet took this to mean that he wanted a “hot slave” and one news source reported that he wanted a wife who was “hot, kind and servile.”
Tebow was trying to get at the idea that Christian service is a good thing, but also that the Scriptures teach that a woman ought to submit to her husband - this is what we looked at a few weeks ago in Titus 2:5.
To which I want to add that we do not view “servant” as a bad thing, or “submission” as oppressive. As we saw in the introductions of James and Jude - both men would rather identify themselves as slaves or bondservants of Christ than they would brothers of Jesus.
Now my second example:
Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk the board of directors of Turning Points USA unanimously elected Kirk’s wife Erika as their new CEO. I first saw this from CNN. Like a fool, I decided to look at the comments.
Interestingly, the first comment that I saw said “How can she be the CEO when she is supposed to submit to men?”
The Bible NEVER instructs that women submit to all men. In fact, women submitting to their husbands is an exclusive relationship. A wife submitting to her husband means that she isn’t submitting to other men.
I begin with these two examples for two reasons. First, is that as a culture we misunderstand submission. Submission is not slavery.
Second, is that submission is not only referenced in the Bible in relation to marriage. The culture loves to pick fights over the Bible asserting that wives should submit to their husbands. And then in turn they ignore that the Bible commands every Christian to submit to someone.
Just a few weeks ago we looked at Titus 2:5 which teaches use that older women, are to teach younger women to be submissive to their husbands.
5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
This means that women ought to teach other women what it looks like to submit to their husbands leadership. God has ordained for the husband to be the head of the household. But he does this with appropriate qualifications. His leadership of the family must also be in accordance with the will of God. He ought to submit to Christ. And if his leadership in the home conflicts with the will of God - then the wife, and his children - should instead submit to Christ, when it conflicts.
Several places in the New Testament, wives are taught to submit to husbands. Husbands are to submit to Christ. All Christians are to submit to Christ. Ephesians 5:21 also teaches that Christians ought to submit to one another out of reverence.
Submission in its most basic sense is to acknowledge one’s authority. Women submit to their husbands when they acknowledge that the man is the head of the household.
Citizens submit to the government when they acknowledge the appropriate roles of the government. From Romans 13 we learn that the government is to be a terror to evil conduct, to be God’s servant, and to bear the sword - the authority to punish criminals. And Romans 13 urges us to pay our taxes, and to submit to the government.
To be submissive to rulers and authorities is bigger than just the government. There are other authorities in your life aside from the government… but the language of rulers and authorities does convey that this is especially referring to the government.
Our text for this morning touches on two kinds of submission. Submission to the government and submission to Christ. Submission to the government is explicit, but submission to Christ is implicit. However, I also want to back track to chapter 2 for a moment as well. I covered a lot of text two weeks ago, and I want to draw attention to the instruction that wives ought to submit to their husbands. Christians should submit to the government. But all of this is of course modeled by Jesus submitting to the Father - submitting to the will of the Father even to the point of death - that he might be raised again and glorified as the only savior of men.
This morning we will only truly be looking at verse 1. Which teaches us to Submit, obey and do good.
Submission and obedience are not the same but they are closely tied.
Submission
Now by the means of us addressing the government, I had to make a disclaimer. I know some people get antsy when pastors begin speaking about politics.
The American idea of separation of church and state was to protect the church from the state. Not to remove religion from politics.
The Bible has a lot to say about politics. Jesus is Lord and Jesus is King are political statements.
Romans 13, which I will reference heavily today gives instructions for how the government ought to act.
The Bible gives instructions for how we ought to integrate all of Christ, to all of life. So while it instructs us how to vote. It all instructs us how we ought to think about policy.
However, even as we might want to separate conversations of politics and faith - our American political conversations have become increasingly theological.
Here’s an example: I read a book in seminary that stated that pastors should not talk about abortion from the pulpit because it is a political issue. I don’t normally through books but proceeded to throw that book across the room… Then write in the margin how how I was bothered by that statement.
The definition of life, and our responsibility to protect life is not a political issue. It is a theological issue. The application of the 6th commandment guides us to not only not kill, but also to preserve life.
I’m not normally that political of a person… but some of my sermons might cause some people to think otherwise. But when the definition of marriage, and the definition of a man or a woman, the beginning of life are all our “political” issues… those are inherently theological… because they deal with Biblical Anthropology.
However, the Bible does step into the political realm. Here we see that the manner in how the believer ought to respond to and respect governing authorities is prescribed. We are called to submit, obey and be prepared for every good word.
1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
When it comes to the subject of submission, especially to the government, the question always comes up…
When do we submit to the government, when do we ignore?
This is where the distinction between submit and obey comes in. There are times when you can submit to the government, and not obey the government. You can recognize that the government has authority, but is misguided at points. You can recognize that a president is our president and not follow their recommendations or regulations. However, we need to be careful that our category for disobedience is not simply “They are part of a different party than mine.”
Declarations of “Not my President” are a prime example of an attitude that demonstrates a resistance to submission to the government. What’s also interesting is how our government structure works that is different than Paul was writing of. We don’t have a king or an emperor - and our constitution protects us from someone attempting to take that role. That leads us to when it comes time to disobey, or not submit.
This same question comes up with women submitting to their husbands. Christians are always called to submit to Christ, if submission to any lesser authority would result in sin, then you may disregard the less to submit to the greater.
There are biblical exceptions, that demonstrate the right and appropriate time to not submit to the government, and instead to fear God.
In Exodus 1:17, we read of the Hebrew midwives who fear God more than Pharaoh. and protect the male children, rather than obey Pharaoh’s command to kill them. “17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.”
The law of God teaches us to protect human life, so if the government calls us to in some reason or another harm human life we resist.
One practical example, is this is why Christians could never be content to simply say “well Roe vs. Wade” was the law of the land, or it was settled law. Because it was a flawed and wicked ruling. And praise God that it was overruled.
Daniel
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - were right to resist submitting to Nebuchanezzar when he made a law forcing everyone to bow down and worship to his golden idol. (Daniel 3)
In Daniel 6, when the officials and satraps came to the King to pass a law to trap Daniel, knowing that he prayed
In all of those instances, keeping the law of the land meant violating the law of God.
Those examples all demonstrate and instance in which the government went beyond their God appointed responsibilities. And the government in those instances created a tension between the first part of this verse and the last part. Submitting to the government was not doing every good work. But instead it was requiring evil.
You may ask: What are those God appointed responsibilities?
Romans 13:1-7 gives us this instruction.
Romans 13 teaches us that the government ought to be God’s servant for our good. The government bears the sword, meaning the government has the right to punish criminals. Which in turn also condemns vigilante justice.
The lingering question becomes then… what of 2020? To what degree should we have submitted to the government? What can we learn?
That’s a tough issue - because well Hindsight is 20/20… we know know that we were operating in many cases on bad information.
Now, I was not in Arizona, so I cannot speak to how things were handled here… and in California they were handled by a tyrant. (I say that given what permissions scripture gives for governing authorities.)
The main issue that happened is that the government sought to close churches. Stating that it was not safe to gather. Some churches I know completely ignored this. Others did not gather for a few weeks.
It was a violation of the 1st Amendment, but it was also a conflict of the scriptures regular command that Christians ought to gather together in worship and fellowship. As seen in Hebrews 10:25, and demonstrated in various other texts, such as Psalm 122, and the 59 one another commands in the New Testament.
When it became widely known that certain dens of immorality sometimes falsely called “Gentlemen Clubs” were permitted to remain open but churches were not is when many churches began to ignore the instruction. It was an illegal instruction in the first place, but in the desire to maintain the spirit of this text, and Romans 13, many headed the advice.
But if I am being honest, Covid was a time that churches should have ignored government regulations. However, hindsight is always 20/20. We may never be given the chance to redo that - but if given the chance to do it all over again - most churches that I know of would handle it differently.
Now, I want to address the first two words of this verse. Remind them. We’ve talk about submission - but it is important that we are regularly reminded of our desire to resist authority.
Some commentators speculated that the Cretans were particularly resistant towards government officials. And while that is true, I think it speaks more to the human condition and our desire to resist authority. We need to be regularly reminded that we ought to submit to the government for the means of glorifying.
One example of how we see how the Christian worldview has influenced the culture with this recently is how those mourning Charlie Kirk’s death did so by sharing the gospel, looking to Christ, and responding in peace, where as those who have completely rejected the children worldview have responded to moments like this by burning down cities.
Very recently, news have demonstrated how much those who oppose the government refuse to submit to the government. Attacking ICE agents, or vandalizing government buildings, or even just nasty slanderous comments concerning politicians and authority figures.
Obey
The second part of the command that Paul is instructed Titus to teach the church is to be obedient
You can submit and not obey. Speed limits are a great example of this. You can acknowledge that ADOT has the right to implement speed limits, but fail to obey.
Now I will agree that many speed limits are in some cases poorly implemented.
It’s a whole lot easier to be submissive to the government when you like what the government is doing. When you voted for whoever is in office. This is also true for obey. However, there is no condition for how much you like the government for your submission or obedience. Nero was the emperor when Titus was written. So Paul is telling Titus to remind Christians to submit to and obey a Tyrant King who is now known for heavily persecuting Christians. Of the same wicked ruler, Peter writes honor the emperor.
The reason that we submit to and obey the government is not because there is something remarkably significant concerning the government… but rather because there is something remarkably significant about the Lord Jesus.
So as much as we can we ought to seek to submit to and obey the rulers and authorities whether we like them or not.
However, when Christians in China gather for worship in house churches against the government’s order. They are rightly obeying God rather than man.
We obey the government when we keep the laws.
When we pay our taxes… even when we really don’t want to.
When we stay put under a shelter in place order even if we really want to get McDonalds. When we take heed to the mayor and city council’s instructions concerning how to respond to the flood - and wait for them to develop the appropriate course of action - but then when it clears we should hope to be among the first people to jump to help.
Submitting and obeying - do not mean that a Christian must silently and idly sit by if/when the government commits injustice. But rather to speak correction when the authority is in error - to correct them with Scripture. The same is expected in all aspects of submission - when a husband is in error or sin his wife should correct him, when a parent is in error or sin a child ought to RESPECTFULLY, and with all honor, correct their parent, boss to employee, sheep to shepherd, etc.
Do Good
The final exhortation in this verse for this morning is to be ready for every good work. Gentle correction is a good work.
So is prayer for government officials, rulers and authorities. Pray for their wisdom, their guidance, pray for them to be a terror to wickedness, and to rightly bear the sword as necessary. Pray for rulers and authorities to uphold their God given roles and responsibilities.
We should be eager to do good. Part of doing means praying for our government representatives but also seek to support them, encourae them, admonish them, but also correcting them. But doing so with humility.
However, the weather of this past weekend gives us an opportunity to demonstrate two things.
Submit to the government.
Do the good works that we are made ready for.
Earlier in Titus, Paul tells us two things about good works.
First, that false teachers are unfit for any good work. (1:16)
That the cross of Christ should lead us to be zealous for good works.
Once, the being stuff is cleared out and the city is ready for help - it would be wonderful to see how each of us can be ready to help out our city to get back on our feet.
Not for the sake of humanitarian effort, not because good deeds save - they don’t… but because Jesus has saved us and desires that we would be fountain of good.
The Christian message is a joyful declaration that the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, took on flesh, humbled himself and submitted to the will of God the Father that he might die to sacrifice himself for our sins. Jesus took our place on the cross, we should have died that death for our sins, but Jesus died for us - that all who believe in him may have their sins forgiven. Yet he victoriously conquered the grave - and demonstrated that he is King. And the appropriate response that all men ought to have is to submit to the King. Worship the King for his is worthy of all honor, and glory and praise.
Submit to Christ. Jesus is King. Psalm 2 commands the nations to Kiss the Son lest he be angry. Christ Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, and those who do not submit to him will be rightly punished for their sins.
