Spiritual Disciplines #7: Submission

Submission is not a popular word.  For many of us, the word submission conjures up imagines of abuses of power, past and present, in government, in workplaces, in families, and even in churches.  In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster is quick to say that when authority is being destructive, when it is hurting people, submission is not required and, in fact, resistance might be necessary.

All of that, however, does not relieve us from the responsibility of practicing the spiritual discipline of submission.  Often, I have found that the people to whom I am being called to submit are not evil, they are simply mistaken, or not even mistaken, they are just not doing things the way I would do them.  One of the hardest things, I think, for young people to learn is that their boss may not be as smart as they are, yet they must do as they say.  If it is not an issue of moral compromise, we must submit to proper authority.  When it is an issue of moral compromise, we must “obey God rather than people,” (Acts 5:29) and be ready to face the consequences.

Foster says that the great benefit of submission is that it relieves us from the burden of having to be in charge all the time.  It is simply letting another have their way and not insisting that we get our own way all the time.

Foster also says that Christian submission is founded in Christian freedom.  The Christian voluntarily submits to authority, God’s authority and human authority, following the example of Jesus Christ who “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8)  

It is through this lens that we can understand commands in the New Testament like “slaves obey your masters” (Ephesians 6:5 and others) which is given “for the sake of the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:23)  Clearly, Jesus was not in favor of slavery, but his message to slaves was, “You are free, and now because you are free, submit for the sake of the gospel.”  If the infant church in the first century Roman Empire would have gone around telling slaves not to obey their masters, it would have hindered the spread of the gospel and it would not have ended well for the slaves. 

Of course, these verses should never have been used to condone slavery as such, but we can transfer this idea of submission into our modern working world.  Christians should be the best and most obedient citizens and employees for the sake of the gospel, except when asked to make a moral compromise.  The better citizens and employees we are, the more attractive the gospel is and the more God receives the glory.  By the way, I employee the same logic as above to understand the New Testament passages about the status and role of women.  “Wives submit to your husbands” (Ephesians 5:22) meant something different in the first century than it does in the twenty-first century.

Our first submission is to God and God’s Word.  Then we are called to submit to our families, our church, our employers, and to our government at various levels.  When we submit for the sake of Jesus Christ, we become more Christ-like and we draw others to Christ.