Submission and Unity
Date: September 5, 2010 Scripture: Ephesians 5:21
Series: The Gospel for Relationships
Proposition: Spirit-filled submission is essential to Christian unity.
Title: Submission and Unity
Intro: When you have an idea or observation, isn’t it amazing how often you re right? And if only people would listen to you, you could get a lot of people straightened out. And a lot of organizations. And dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, you have had the answer to our nation’s problems. Why don’t more people listen to you? I don’t understand it either. And for a person of such accomplished ideas, and so often correct, is it proper to submit to others? That may be asking just too much. I mean, wouldn’t it be a great loss to the world?
Last week we looked at the four marks of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps they could be summarized as a joyful fellowship – with God and with His people.
- Speaking to one another
- Singing and making
melody in your heart - Giving thanks always
You can see how positive all these things are. What a positive attitude is expressed in each one.
And then the fourth mark – submitting to one another.
That one may take the air out of your feel-good balloon.
“Wait – I like to do what I like to do, when I like to do it. I like to be at my planned place, at my planned pace. Don’t anyone tell me what to do. It infringes on my personhood, and my identity. So when I have to, I will submit at work, or when I see a police cruiser, but I won’t like it. That isn’t living. Doing what I want to do when I want to do it is where real life is.”
Submission can easily be looked a in a negative light, especially in a culture that is a democracy. We might a have an underlying sense of “We are all equal, so no one should have to submit.
Transition: But Ephesians 4:21 has a different take on it.
Main Points:
I)A reverent submission to our fellow believers is the 4th mark of being filled with the Spirit. (v 18)
21 b
The
1. To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another.
2. To
3. To commit (something) to the consideration or judgment of another.
II)This is in the context of unity – Submission is indispensable to getting along, because if we all insist on getting our way, we will be in conflict.
How can people get along? Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (or out of fear of God, fear meaning reverence for his power)
a) Here is a key lesson – we submit to God by submitting to proper human authority. Anyone of us can be convinced that we are submitting to God, while all the time we are doing what we want, when we want, and having other people do things our way, too. In such a case, how would we ever know if we are truly submitting to God, or that we are simply putting a veneer of godliness over our own self-serving choices?
Romans 13:1-2 tells us.
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
b)This is a path for being healthy as well.
A study was done a number of years ago to find out which hospitals for life-disrupting mental and emotional problems were the most effective, so the best approach could be determined. The researchers discovered that most hospitals had about the same rate of improvement for in-patients. And when the patients left, they had about the same rate of relapse.
Their conclusion – the key wasn’t what psychological theory was used – the key was that the hospitals had a structured setting. Meals were served at set times, lights went out at set times, meetings were scheduled during the day. And the patients, by conforming to a schedule and the rules of the floor, and with it relating to people differently, got better in their emotional and mental health. And leaving the structure, and falling back into old patterns, led to a relapse.
c)Would a child who got his way all the time be a healthy child? That child would not mature, and will likely be in dangerous places. So it is with us. It is good for us to have places where we aren’t getting our way all the time, but rather we have to bend our wills. It makes us healthier, more mature people
d)Are you doing things you would not in yourself choose to do because you have chosen to submit to someone, or some larger group? If we can bend our will to others, we have a hope for unity.
III)It is important at this point to say that submission is not absolute. We do not submit to all authority, but to “proper” human authority. Not all human authority in all situations is legitimate. Submission is not absolute.
A)Here’s an example in the Scripture – Acts 4:18-19 and 5:28-29
When human authority compels us to disobey God’s authority, then we do not submit to man.
B)We are not called to submit to abusive situations. Abuse means to misuse authority to harm another person in an unjust way.
The apostle Paul was beaten as a prisoner without any trial, and the next morning when the magistrate released him, Paul remained in the jail and sent word to the magistrate: I’m a Roman citizen. Come yourself and get us out. Because Roman citizens had certain rights the magistrate knew he could be in deep trouble with his superiors, and he came to Paul and pleaded with him to leave the city. So when Paul’s rights as a citizen were abused, Paul took a stand.
Years ago at a missionary kids’ school abuse took place over several years that was unbelievable for any organization, let alone Christian organization. The director of the school was an authoritarian who imposed his will on all, and punished severely for the most minor and childish infractions, real or imagined.
The director had a powerful strategy – he told the children that if they worried their parents about their schooling, they would disrupt their parents’ missionary work, and because of that, they would cause Africans to go to hell. They were forced to send letters to their parents telling how happy they were. So the children were psychologically manipulated
We know there are sick personalities who rise through organizations, but the deeper puzzlement is that the school staff took on a culture of abuse, either actively or by allowing it to happen without objecting. Part of it was that someone had to say: This isn’t right. I must obey God rather than man.
Given the isolated location, the original good intentions behind the staff calling, and the psychological pressure of the director along with peer pressure and group-think, it would have taken a great, courageous act to have blown the whistle and entered into a great battle. How it was needed.
One good question: is the person at the top of the chain himself or herself submitted? Is there someone, or some group who can say “no” to that person? If not the situation is ripe for abuse.
IV)Having given that boundary, let’s return to the original statement –
Submitting to one another. The godly resistance against abusive authority is the exception. Our normal pattern will be to submit.
This call to submit sets the topic for the next section in Ephesians, which is about relationships in three areas: marriage, parents and children, the work place. We will look at those starting next Sunday.
V)Submission is a Christ-like thing
Submission may seem to make us inferior, and we can far it makes us weak.
So we need to ask the question: did Jesus submit?
A)Jesus, should we pay taxes?
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
B)Jesus submitted to the Father
I Cor 15:28
Jesus is never an inferior being to the Father. As Fanny Crosby described the three persons of the godhead in her hymn – they are “co-equal in glory”.
And look at the end result of his subjection –
That God may be all in all.
That is unity.
C)This is not a drudgery for Jesus – John 4:34
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” In other words – this is what I live on.
D)Jesus in submission went to the cross. In submission we embrace the cross, and always after the cross there is a resurrection – the new life Jesus gives. The new life following submission is the joy of unity and fellowship.
Submission is a Christ-like choice. That is why submitting to one another is a mark of being filled with the Spirit.
Application: How do we get along in church? Submitting to one another.
We need to conduct our church business meetings, and our church board meetings, and our church prayer meetings in accord with this command.
We need to avoid in our relationships a sense of personal competition and concern about order of status, and of “affirm me by affirming my ideas”.
In place we need to listen to one another, consider one another, and
Are you fighting authority someplace?
Are you struggling with it because you are defending your ego, and protecting your independence? You may be filled with anger, and anxiety, and you would find submission freeing.
You may be in some major conflict today. It is probably filled with complexities.
Start with this – are you submitted to God? Get your ego out of it, and desire that God to be glorified above all.
That God may be all in all. Including in those frustrating relationships – there too you have your God-given purpose.
Conclusion: Submission to one another out of reverence for Christ is a key to unity.
posted by Jerry | 6:20 PM
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