I have been a called a rebel before. Which is kind of funny if you really really really know me, but not a stretch if you’ve just met me. It used to make me terribly uncomfortable and ashamed to be told that I was a rebel; the word has such a bad connotation.
Lately I have thought long and hard about rebels. I don’t like being called one so I wanted to understand. I’ve heard the whole “Jesus was a rebel” thing but I honestly don’t love the “Jesus was a rebel” card. As true as that statement is, He also was submissive not only to God but others, and He was also a servant, and more than anything He was also God and Savior and seeing Him primarily as rebel steals from what He really was: God incarnate, the Savior of the world. So I won’t pull that card on you guys, it feels too easy and it is too cheap to say “Jesus did it” every time we are uncomfortable or challenged.
The Bible has quite a bit to say about submission, that’s perhaps were the shame comes from when I am called a rebel. Submission to leaders, parents, husbands, authorities. You name it, the Bible is asking us to submit to them. But that troubles me, and honestly it has led to abuse in my life, both received and given.
Every verse or chapter dealing with submission all by itself may seem to suggest blind submission to authority, the only issue with that is that they are taken out of their context. To fully understand them we need to read the entire chapter, and sometimes a few chapters around them, We need to understand the context in which they were written, what was meant to be communicated to the original hearers, and we need to see them in light of the entire Word of God and understand them within the greater Story that’s being told. That’s true about all Scripture, not just verses on submission.
While submission and respect are indeed things we must heed, it is never to be blind submission and it never necessitates we stop being the kind of people who ask questions and are uncomfortable with the way things are. Disagreement is not dishonor, disagreement is not lack of submission, the way we handle the disagreement can be dishonor, but disagreement per se simply means we turned on our brain and something just didn’t sit well. It’s allowed friends, it’s allowed to say “hmmm I am not sure about that” those feelings will lead you to greater revelation if you deal with them. You know what’s dishonorable? to feel that and not say anything but let it fester inside of you, that is dishonorable.
Turning off our brain and nodding because you’ve been told to submit will leave us in a vegetative state, just robots moving without thinking, simply following commands. We have brains for a purpose! God intended for us to use them at all times (did you know your brain is active even when you sleep? even if you were in a coma? they are meant to do that). Blind “yes sirs” demand we betray ourselves when we are feeling uncomfortable. Submission is never blind and passive, it is intentional, and quite active.
Submit to God
The first time we are asked to submit actively is when we are asked to submit to God by choosing to follow Christ. Not once did Jesus demand/force people to follow Him, He simply asked people to, and those who had questions about what the following entailed received answers not judgement. Those who didn’t ask anything mostly already knew exactly what He meant (a quick study of rabbinical practices in the first century will show you that Rabbis asked this question often and its meaning was clear for Jewish men). He asks us all to follow Him, to submit to Him, but it is important to remember He does it now having died for you and me.
Jesus’ authority is undeniable because He proved He loved us by going to that cross to have us. He is not asking we submit to Him without authenticating His own submission to the Father; we know He is submitted to the Father because He gave Himself as an ultimate sacrifice paying the price I was supposed to pay. And even with His undisputable authority He invites us submit, never demands we do it. And He works with us, He answers our questions and is patient and respectful with our “rebellious” attitudes.
Jesus submitted to us first by dying for us. He essentially says “I submitted to you by paying for your debt with my own life, will you now submit to me by accepting the sacrifice I made and following me?” heck yeah! Are you kidding me? He already went all in for me, I can certainly trust Him and submit to Him.
Submit to His Word
After we’ve made the decision to submit to God by following Christ, then we are asked to submit to His word. And then the party gets started. We are asked to struggle with the Scriptures, to chew on them, to dissect them, to sit uncomfortably with them and let them dissect us back. We aren’t asked to read one verse and run with it, we are invited to let the Word search us as we search for Christ in it.
And again the authority of the Bible has been authenticated by its veracity. I know not all believe it’s a book from God, but the thing is that this Bible, this Word of God, it is composed of 66 different books, 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. It was written over about a fifteen hundred year span by more than 40 authors from every walk of life, including kings, military leaders, fishermen, peasants, philosophers, poets, musicians, scholars, shepherds, political leaders and tax collectors. It was written on three continents, three different languages, in a wide variety of literary styles. With all of these facts it is impossible to believe the Bible as a whole tells one single unfolding story, all around only One leading character, but that’s the absolute truth.
From cover to cover the Bible is centered around the One, true living God made known through Jesus Christ, from cover to cover the Bible tells the story of love and redemption between God and His people. It is many books and many authors in many different periods of time that show the continuity that only one book and One Author can*.
We aren’t being asked to submit to a crazy book of contradictions and crazy stories. The longer I spend time with it the more I am dumbfounded by its wisdom and ability to show me my own heart as it reveals to me the heart of God. And in our submission to it we are asked to struggle with it! To go to God and tell Him “say what? why is that there? why does it say that? That makes no sense!” It’s allowed, it’ll open your eyes to greater revelation, to deeper understanding.
Do you see that? Do you see how submission is active with the Word of God too? The Bible is final in authority and still we get to ask questions and be uncomfortable. God isn’t dishonored by that, instead He is right in it. I’ve told Him I think He was wrong by how He handled certain things, and I’ve taken the time to sit with them, and ask questions about it and every time I learn a new thing about God’s character and realize, obviously, He wasn’t. And I am better for it, and He is there with me as I kind of question His judgement.
The dishonorable thing to do would be to question His judgement and leave, and believe I am right and He doesn’t get to walk with me and show me His intentions. But coming to Him with them isn’t dishonor at all.
Submit to One Another**.
Lastly we are asked to submit to one another in the book of Ephesians, and after it tells us to submit to one another it goes on to describe three types of relationships in which this plays out, which actually describes all relationships. Think further into the implications of each one of these relationships, this isn’t talking just about parents, spouses and masters, it’s talking about all relationships.
Husbands and Wives
Permanent relationships, covenantal relationships (you may not be married but there may still be covenantal relationships in your life).
These are the types of relationships you are going to be in forever and where the roles in terms of the relationships are not going to change. Wives indeed are asked to submit to theirs husbands, but it doesn’t stop there at all. Husbands are asked to go all out in their love for their wives, the way that Christ loved the Church. Do you know how many wives will not submit to a husband willing to die for her? Do you how many husbands won’t want to die for a wife who honors him? That’s what mutual submission means, it’s not domineering and abusive, it’s two people out doing one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10).
Parents and Children
Temporary relationships (you may not have children but there are temporary relationships in your life. Think also in terms of discipleship).
These are relationships that last for a season and change with time. Children are indeed asked to honor their parents, and parents are asked not to anger their children and to lead them to God. Children are crazy, I’ll just leave that here. But demanding submission from them because we are their parents won’t make them any less crazy as much as it will make them resentful toward us and unruly towards all. Parents we get to lead them to God and not anger them, and in doing so they will willingly honor and submit to us, because we are worth submitting to, not because we have the role of dad/mom. Children you get to honor mom and dad, and in doing so it will go well with you. There aren’t many honorable children who fight lots with their parents. This is mutual, it isn’t one-sided, it breaks apart when one side doesn’t yield and expects the other to keep on yielding.
Masters and Servants
Material relationships (you may not be working or in school, but there are material relationships in your life).
These are relationships outside of the family unit (read also outside the Church). In these relationships there is a transactional element that doesn’t exist in the others. The relationship is based on giving and receiving. Servants give work, receive pay. Masters give pay, receive good work. Even though it may seem like it from the outside, there is no hierarchy here, in any of these relationships, and particularly in this one. Servants work for the masters, the masters pay them and take care of them. But at the end of the day they are both under the same Master in heaven. An abused servant who receives threats understandably won’t be able to do a good job. A servant who doesn’t do a good job understandably can’t demand to be taken care of.
In all of these relationships nobody is above anybody, nobody is better than anybody, everyone is just fulfilling a role within a relationship, and everybody is asked to submit. And it’s never blind submission, but relational submission. Children get to speak up, ask questions, share their desires, disagree, and bring it all respectfully to their parents. Husbands and wives get to discuss, decide the direction of the home together, get vision for their family as a couple, and lead the family together. Masters and Servants work together, for the same purpose, fulfilling a different role. Both servants and masters get to bring ideas, share their concerns, explain their discontent, challenge each other.
If the focus when we read that piece of Scripture in Ephesians is on the other, then I gotta tell you, we need to check our heart. If you are a husband wanting to text your wife about the Bible mentioning her submission to you, or if you are a parent wanting to make a print for your kids’ rooms asking them to honor you. Then friend we misunderstood what the Bible is about. The Bible is a book that dissects YOUR heart, we shouldn’t use it as a sword to wound others or intimidate them into doing what we want. We struggle with it, share what we have learned and let it do in others what the Bible is great at doing: draw people to God.
And then we have to wonder: why are our children not submitting to us? why are people around us not submitting to us? why are our marriages not about outdoing each other in honor? our frienships straimed? Could it be we haven’t submitted first to others? Could it be we haven’t authenticated our submission to the Father for others? Could it be we haven’t submitted to His Word? Submission is not a one way street, you don’t get to demand it if you are unwilling to first yield to it. Parents, husbands, wives, friends, coworkers, teachers, we submit to Christ first, then to God’s word, and then to others. We actually never get to demand submission, that comes from each person’s heart, we only get to do the submitting.
A misunderstanding of submission makes us slaves, and though it is hard to get submission right, rebels get to! but more on that in the next post.
*For more on the Bible and it’s veracity you can also check Josh McDowell’s “The New Evidence that demands a Verdict” Highly recommended.
** To further understand what I explain please read Ephesians 5:15-6:9
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