Skip to main content

There Is No I In Team But There Are Several In Submission



  Ok I know it is dirty word to some.  Some folks might to get upset that I am talking about it but I think it something that must be taught in the Lord’s church.  It’s a Biblical concept that is you have to work to avoid in the New Testament.
It is the idea of submission.

  The Bible has a lot to say about submission.  It tells us we need to submit to God (James 4:7), human institutions like governments and police (1 Peter 2:13), our church leaders (Hebrews 13:17), our masters, like bosses and teachers (1st Peter 2:18, Titus 2:9).  It even commands submission on a personal level, wives to their husband (1st Peter 3:1), young men to their elders (1st Peter 5:5), and even to each other (Ephesians 5:21).   Now I know we live in a world that demands our “rights” and refuses to take a back seat to anyone, but for a true Christian submission isn't just a suggestion, it is a command.

  I know what you’re thinking submission is needed…. for other people.  This world sure would be a better place if everyone else let go of their opinions and did what I think they should.  But that is exactly the point.  Submission isn’t for other people, it is for me! I have a God given responsibility to set my own wants and desire for others.

  I balk at the number of times I will be among Christians that will ignore the rules of an authority.  The sign say no outside food or drink; well I’m not throwing out my coffee!  The nursery say no children over this age, well little Johnny is older than that but they can make an exception for me.  The van is leaving at 5:30, well I’m running late so they better still be there or I will flip my lid!  The regulation says you must have this feature installed in you building, but we think it is foolish so we will just ignore it.  Who are they to tell me what to do! I’ll do what I want! The rules don’t apply to me, I’m special. I demand special treatment! I’m entitled to more!

Is this kind of attitude submission?

  The Bible doesn't tell us to submit to laws we like and agree with and bosses that are fair, In fact is says just the opposite! (1st Peter 2:18, Romans 13:5)  But to hear us talk you would think the Bible says nothing about the need to submit. We have become so opinionated, so sure that we are right about everything, so convinced of our superiority that the idea of purposely putting oneself in a lower place has become an absurd notion to us.  This habit of defiance to anyone that tells us what to do is a dangerous one for the those seeking God's favor. Why? Consider this verse;
“God is opposed to the proud but give grace to the humble”
(James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5)


  We better learn to submit or God will humble us.  Since this is a “me” thing more than a “we” and defiantly not a “you” thing, I better start with me.  I need to let go of something I want for the benefit of others.  I need to do something because I was told to rather than because it was be easy on me.  I need to take my self-interest and superiority and set it aside for the benefit of others.  I need to serve rather than be served.  I need to be less concern about what I am due and just obey, even if it kills me.  If I manage to do that, now who would I end up being like?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Know All Those Words, But That Sentence Makes No Sense To Me

  Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so.  Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English.  Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome.  Wouldn’t you feel good?   You shouldn’t.  As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590.   You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with.   Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Master Your Self

  In a contest for the toughest president of the United States, it would be hard to go against Theodore Roosevelt.  He was known for his “manly” pursuits hunting big game, climbing the Matterhorn, participating in boxing match while president. (These weren’t play fights, he lost the vision on one eye because of them!)  Once before he was about to give a speech an assassin shot him in the chest.  Roosevelt refused to go to a hospital and insisted on giving his speech, still wearing his blood-soaked shirt!   Teddy might have become tough but he wasn’t born that way.  He was a sickly child that suffered from severe asthma that almost proved fatal.  As was a young boy, doctors discovered that he had a weak heart, and advised him to get a desk job and not strain himself.  He was homeschooled because of his many illnesses and spent most of his time indoors.   But then as a teen his father, whom Teddy Roosevelt revered, told his son, “ ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

  Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair   It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission.  It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...
Post a Comment
Read more