Submit to One Another
Christ is the Lord of all (Romans 10:12). Which is to say, he is Lord over all the winged cherubim and he is Lord over all the fallen angels; he is Lord over the fairest ocean breeze and he is Lord over the rampaging cyclone; he is Lord over the sweetest Labradoodle and he is Lord over the mauling Grizzly Bear. He is, without exception, Lord of all.
Most Christians heartily affirm the Lordship of Christ in these areas. We nod resolutely, we say our amens, and we give thanks to God that he is provident over all of that stuff out there.
But then God starts saying outlandish things, like, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21, emphasis mine), and “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13–14, emphasis mine), and “Obey your [church] leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17, emphasis mine).
Here, the picture begins to change rather dramatically. We Christians might utter our amens when we hear these passages read in church, but then — we go home and tend to forget those amens.
A Life Furnished with Strife
Here’s a hypothetical example of what I’m talking about. Suppose that Mr. and Mrs. Smith load their two young, toddling boys into the car on Sunday morning, and drive the windy back roads to church. They get the boys checked into kids church, then they go and worship with the rest of the church. On their way out of the sanctuary, one of the pastors pulls Mr. Smith aside to discuss an issue that’s recently come to light: Mr. Smith lied to another member, Mr. Jones, about something-or-other. Mr. Jones obeyed the instructions of Matthew 18 and confronted Mr. Smith directly -- once by himself, and then a second time with a couple of witnesses after the first visit proved fruitless. But Mr. Smith refused to repent of his sin.
So, now the church is involved (Matthew 18:17). The pastor wants to set up a meeting with Mr. Smith and the elders to try and resolve this amicably. But Mr. Smith, face getting redder by the minute, mumbles something to the effect of having to check his calendar before he can commit to a meeting. The pastor nods and says that he’ll call Mr. Smith on Monday evening to confirm a date and time.
But in reality, Mr. Smith has no intention of going through with this meeting. He simply cannot believe that the church would infringe upon his personal life in this way. “How dare they get involved in this!” Smith thinks to himself. “This is between me and Jones, and the pastors need to leave well-enough alone!”
By the time he’s pulled away from the pastor, Mrs. Smith has come out of kids church with their two boys in tow. They all walk out to the car and get buckled in, but Mr. Smith remains noticeably quiet on the way home. Mrs. Smith notices and asks what Pastor Bob wanted to talk to him about. “Oh, just this stupid thing between me and Jones. The church leadership wants to get involved -- can you believe that? I didn’t realize we were members of some kind of fascist club!” The family is silent for the rest of the drive.
Over the course of the following week, Mr. Smith acts irritably at work and at home. He gives his coworkers the cold shoulder; he raises his voice at his children for playing with their toys too loudly; he has a fight with his wife because she let the eggs expire without cooking them first. Mr. Smith’s life is furnished with strife, and from there it only gets worse.
We Do Not Possess All Wisdom
The root of Mr. Smith’s problems, in this case, is his failure to repent from his sin of lying (though if you really wanted to, you could trace the problem back much further than that — but for the sake of this article, we’ll stick with the lie). His refusal to acknowledge his sin leads to further disobedience, including his refusal to submit to his church leaders — which in turn leads to further sin and strife within his own home. Mr. Smith thought that Pastor Bob’s request was an assault on his sacred, individual freedom, which he wanted to preserve above all else — but as it turns out, Mr. Smith’s failure to submit to his leaders led to greater slavery to sin.
This is the way that many Westerners approach the issue of submission — which is to say, we run away from it as if it were a radioactive dump. We’ve been reared in the school of American liberality, and we’ve learned our lessons by heart.
But Christ beckons us to a different school, a school where we are taught a totally different way of life: a school where children submit to their parents, wives submit to their husbands, church members submit to their elders and leaders, and the elders and leaders along with all Christians submit to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-24, 6:1, 1 Corinthians 11:3).
To modern ears, this sounds garish. But it is the way that God has ordained it to be. Christ is not just the Lord of everything out there; he is also our Lord, which is to say that he is the Lord over all our relationships, Lord over all our decisions, Lord over all our conversations. And through the (sometimes painful) act of submitting to him by means of submitting to one another, we are learning that we do not possess all treasures of wisdom and things to be known.
We, by ourselves, do not possess everything we need to live healthy and whole lives; we cannot be re-formed into the image of Christ on our own; we cannot repair the broken image of God within us on our own. We need one another, and that means that we must learn when and how to properly submit to one another (1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 5:21). To say, “I submit to God alone,” means that we must submit to those whom he has commanded we submit to. If we are not willing to do this, then Christ is not truly our Lord.
Of course, there are times when, out of obedience to God, we must indeed refuse to submit to normal human authority (Acts 5:29). If a dictatorial madman demands that you worship a statue made in his image, you must not submit to his demands. If a pundit tells you to “get with the times,” and stop telling others it’s a sin to have sex outside of marriage, you most certainly do not need to get with the times. If an abusive husband tells his wife that she can’t take the children to church and she can’t talk to the pastors about their marital issues because she has to “submit to his authority,” she does not have to listen to him.
There are also times when we must call out disordered submission. A great example of this (provided by Jared Wilson) is that of the emotionally domineering community group member: if there is always one, singular person that demands all the emotional energy and time of a community group, then that person is failing to submit to others out of reverence for Christ -- and for both his sake and the sake of the group, the disordered submission must be dealt with.
But these cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The rule is God-honoring, neighbor-serving submission. Just as Jesus did not insist on his own will, but rather submitted himself to the Father’s will, so we too are called to follow in his footsteps and submit to God by submitting to those he asks us to submit to (Luke 22:42, 1 Peter 2:21). It is a high and, at times, painful calling — and though it may appear to the modern world as slavery, in the end it is the only way we can truly be free.
So come to the Lord of all. Submit yourself to him, and follow him. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
