Submission: The Wisdom of Respecting Authority

Have you ever noticed that at the same time submission has become a dirty word, authority has become an object of hatred? 

What began as a breakdown of Christian education became a relational breakdown in the home and that became a systemic breakdown in our culture.  The circle of chaos repeats, enlarging with every generation.

Women and men are increasingly giving up on the way of truth and true life in the Bible’s instruction:

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). 

The ramifications of this neglect are dire: children rebelling against parents.  Students rebelling against teachers.  Lawbreakers rebelling against police.  People rebelling against their elected government.  Culture rebelling against God.  I wish people understood how wrong that is in all its forms.  It’s harmful to both self and culture.

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How wonderful it would be if everyone had an appreciation for the beauty of biblical submission and biblical authority, both perfect and amazing in their own ways at the same time!  It is a reflection, a pattern, of our relationship with God. 

It is the only sustainable way of true life.  It’s not a negative at all when viewed rightly. It’s not a power-thing.  It’s not a control-thing.  It’s not a comparative-superiority thing.  But the latter is the meaning our culture has given it.

Therefore, perhaps the larger problem is that people prefer to be in authority rather than under it.  They prefer to require submission from others instead of being in submission themselves.  It’s essentially saying, “I’m right” or “I want power” or “You’d be better off under my control and direction.”  It’s pride, arrogance, and selfishness at its very core, directed at the horizontal relationships of human interaction.  But it’s also spiritual.  It’s rebellion against God, defiance against our Maker, and rejection of His rightful authority over us.

The Church has failed the people in its acquiescence to the culture.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for every woman’s right to be treated as equally wonderful creations of God. 

But the point at which we didn’t teach God’s authority, we also rejected our dependence upon each other as men and women equally submitted to God, and turned our gaze downward to each other, and adopted all the bad things equal authority can give and forsook the beautiful protection of submission at all levels.  We became enemies, adversaries, or at least competitors instead of cooperative partners in a godly team enjoying a journey of mutual submission to our supreme Authority: God Himself.

What’s the cure for this rebellion?  Submission.  The Wisdom of Respecting Authority, not rejecting it. Far from being bad news, it leads us to the place of the life-giving good news modeled by our Savior whom Scripture says is fully God … just like the Father … and yet said, Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Christians need to see the true sustainable life in mutual submission and display its wisdom to the world around us.