Submission
“Prayer should be about submission to God’s will. It should not be about convincing God to do yours.”
- Sheila Wray Gregoire
“Let God have your life. He can do more with it than you can.”
- Dwight L. Moody
If there is one word in the Bible that causes as much or more angst than any other, it is the word… SUBMIT.
In Ephesians 5:22, the Apostle Paul writes,
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord.
The very definition of the word “submit” guarantees that this is one passage I dare not use during a wedding ceremony. Submit is defined as “to accept or yield to a superior force or to the authority or will of another person.” Yeah, right! Before I could even attempt to explain it, I’d probably destroy the marriage before it ever started. Especially as a male pastor, I run the risk of alienating women every time I write or speak on this subject.
Yet, the verse is there and cannot be denied. So, what do we do with it?
There are several points that must be made to fully understand this verse, the first and most important one being… always read a verse within its context.
The verse before it reads, (Ephesians 5:21),
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Both verses make a critical distinction. The submission to which it refers comes out of a relationship with Christ and is only understood when we grasp what it means to submit to God. Submitting to God places both husband and wife in a state of complete humility, recognizing that He is the one true authority, and we are His servants. Only then, when husband and wife are in this humble position, can wives freely and joyfully choose to submit to their husbands. Then, just as importantly, the follow-up verse (Ephesians 5:25) reads,
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
The point is absolutely undeniable… if husbands truly loved their wives in this manner, it would never, and I do mean never, be an issue for wives to submit to their husbands
This problem is this. Not only do husbands rarely love their wives this way, but both husbands and wives can’t even get the submitting to God part right, so how can we possibly hope to grasp submitting to one another.
The reality is that we are selfish creatures and the idea of fully submitting to anyone, including God, goes against our very nature. It means relinquishing control, and one thing we do not like is giving up control.
Yet, the only way we can live an abundant, successful life, is by fully submitting and surrendering to God.
Mark Hart puts it this way,
“God has great plans for you today… creative and unexpected means by which He will make you a saint. He needs only your joyful submission to His plan.”
Monica Johnson expresses it this way,
“As you submit to God more and more, you will get accustomed to being nourished by the power of truth.”
Finally, an unknown author wrote,
“Whether it is clear to you or not, God is in control. Submit to that and you’ll soon see that all is unfolding as it should.”
Yes, we are to “submit to one another," but let’s start by first learning to truly submit to God. The rest will take care of itself.
Pastor Ken
