AUTHORITY AND SUBMISSION – LYNN GREEN

TOPIC SUMMARY
1. The Kingdom of God
2. What are we like?
3. Obedience or Submission?
4. To whom do we submit?
5. Why we should submit.
6. When we disagree with authority.

_________________________________

1. The Kingdom of God
The characteristic of a Christian who is walking with God is dependence upon Him. Repentance consists of forsaking our independent way of life. Dependence on God outworked in relationships with others becomes submission. An independent spirit makes a person isolated. Have you read C.S. Lewis’s book “The Great Divorce” about the difference between hell and heaven? In it he shows how an independent spirit perpetrating itself in hell, and leads to isolation and to more loneliness.

A Christian is a person who chooses to give up his prison of independence and rebellion, and becomes dependent upon God, and seeks to obey Him. In the secular world there is a strong spirit of rebellion at work that hates all authority- legitimate or otherwise – and we need to examine our hearts for places where we have absorbed the world’s values, and have our minds renewed (e.g. Do we resent policemen? or dislike people who have more wealth than us? Are we constantly clock-watching at work, and hostile to those who employ us, suspicious of those who supervise us? Do we believe that a “generation- gap” is inevitable?)

God wants us to different from the world, His own special people, governed by Him, living according to His values (1 Peter 2:9) We need to be a holy nation in unity, a people for His possession. The ‘spotless Bride’ must have a submissive attitude. We are to be a worldwide holy nation. As national structures decline and fall apart, so God wants to show us as an inter-related stable, holy nation.

God will raise up leaders in His Body who are submitted to Him, even as He raises up Moses to lead the children of Israel. He dealt drastically with Korah and his followers who led rebellion, and humiliated Mirian and Aaron when they became jealous. The Spirit of God chose the leadership of the early church. Jesus prayed for long hours before selecting the 12- and what a motley crew they were too! In later years man decided that education or natural abilities should qualify men for leadership. But God’s way still is to choose out a motley crew of people and anoint them. Education and academic training is secondary (-certainly no substitute for the calling of God!) The school of the Spirit is more important, and the choosing of the Spirit is essential. (Ephesians 4:11f.)

The Kingdom of God is where God rules. A Kingdom is where the king is absolutely in charge. God doesn’t rule like President Amin, but by living, loving relationship with every one of His subjects. He rules as a loving, benevolent Director.

_____________________________________

2. What are we like?
As human beings we are blessed with mind, emotions and will. The mind thinks, the emotions feel and the will chooses. If we are to be different and not conform to the world’s way of thinking our mind must be renewed, so we “think twice” before making a wrong or rebellious choice. Having known it is to experience the peace of knowing we’re doing the right thing, and beginning to know God’s ways, after a while we will consistently choose what is right even when it is costly.

No other creature has a will, the ability to self-originate action. Behavioral psychology is largely based on the work of Pavlov who did experiments with dogs! You cannot fully predict men. If you give a dog a strong motivation, he will follow the strongest motivation. Man may do that, but he’s also unpredictable. God could have made us like Pavlov’s dogs, and so got us to serve and “love” Him – but huh, some relationship! Similarly you don’t get selfish bees; they all automatically serve the queen-bee. But if God made us like that, this world would be like a big bee. Bees don’t have the ability to self-originate action. We are the only ones who will be judged, not bees; they do as they are programmed.

If we had no emotions, just imagine we’d all be like Mr. Spock off “Star Trek.” Our emotions should be ruled, however, by our will, rather like a caravan is governed by the car which pulls it. The secular world in our day is obsessed with the pursuit of pleasure. We live in an emotionally-orientated society. People let their choices be governed by emotions, and go down-hill fast like a car being pulled by the caravan it’s attached to! Their code of life becomes: “If it makes you feel good, and it doesn’t hurt anyone else, then it’s O.K.” If you follow this, the “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else” gradually falls off. (This has led to the drug culture, including the problem of alcoholism) When we choose immorality it is for immediate high-pressure gratification, but also long-term consequences. The life of an emotionally-orientated person is very up and down. The highs are very high- but the lows are very low. God wants to bring us to be balanced and whole, leading fulfilled lives.

_____________________________________

3. Obedience or Submission?
Stable relationships, once we know they are right, are built by committing our will – regardless of emotions. Love is primarily a choice. Relationships are of utmost importance in the Kingdom of God- His way of ruling us is by loving relationship, not coercion. The way we are towards our brothers and sisters mirrors the way we are towards God. (1 John 4: 20-21)
Submission is an attitude. It means to put ourselves under willingly, to yield.
Obedience and submission are not the same. There is a clear distinction needed. Obedience is the action that flows naturally out of submission. Submission is the attitude we are commanded to always have. It is possible to be submissive in our hearts and yet not to be obedient. We are told to always be obedient to God, but not always to leaders, though our attitude should always be submissive. (E.g. Brother Andrew, the Bible smuggler, was submissive to governmental authorities, but was sad when they forbade distribution of Bibles, for then he must disobey them in obeying the highest authority of all –God! – Acts 4:19-20 – It is He who is the source of all authority –Romans 13.)
It is possible to be obedient, and not be submissive in our hearts
God cares even more about attitudes then He does Actions. He does not accept right actions with wrong attitudes. If we are inwardly rebellious He knows, even if we can fool others (Matthew 5:28)
Important
Get this distinction. If you say submission and obedience are the same you are falsely assuming that leaders are always right. This was taught in the Children of God sect, until they finally said “If your leader tells you to go out and kill, go ahead and do it, God will not hold you responsible; He will hold your leader responsible.” In the military a soldier is responsible just to do as he is told. But in the Kingdom of God all is based on trust, love and free-will, where all are held responsible.

___________________________________________

4. To whom do we submit?
It is to God we submit – and this will work out practically in our relationships, especially if we believe He has delegated His authority. Examine Romans 13: 1-2 or read Daniel chapter 4, especially verse 37.

a) Wives submit to husbands
(Eph. 5: 22-23, Col. 3:18, Gen. 3:16, 1Peter 3:1)
1 Peter 3:1 talks of a wife winning a (wayward or) non-Christian husband through being submissive. This means she should want to obey him. There may be times, however when she cannot obey him, because in doing so she would be disobeying God who is the higher authority. For instance if the non-Christian husband says to his Christian wife, “Come out for a drink” she will probably accompany him quite willingly, but what if he said “Come out for a wife-swapping party!??”

b) Children submit to parents
Obeying parents (Eph 6:1, Col. 3:20, Prov. 6:20) when under their care and direction should continue into honoring and submitting to them (not obeying them) in adulthood (Prov. 23: 22, Eph. 6:2) If God tells us to ‘go’ in obedience to His call and it is against our family’s wishes, our responsibility is to firstly be sure it is God, and maintain a submissive attitude to our parents, but then still to go in obedience to Him. He will honor that and be released to work in our family’s lives. As soon as our attitude is right an overflow of the grace of God may be released. (Tragically, submitting to our parents is made even harder if they are not as one, and instead present us with conflicting loyalties.)

c) Slaves submit to their masters (employees to employers)
(Eph. 6:5, Col. 3:22, 1 Tim. 6:1, Titus 2:9)
There scriptures remind us that whenever we work, we serve God and are there as His witness. Our attitude to our work and to our employers should be exemplary. Modern union situations (especially an unjust strike) or unwritten – law fiddles become difficult issues for Christian employers who in their situation need the individual specific word of the Lord for them.

d) Submit to governmental authority
(Romans 13:1, Titus 3:1, 1 Peter2: 13-14) Remember also Jesus said to render to Caesar his due, and even paid Temple tax (Jewish) The issue is not whether the government is good. We can only disobey when God’s authority conflicts on the individual command. It is not a case of “the government condones abortion, so why should I respect their speed restrictions when motoring?” We have the right to be bitter or have wrong attitudes. (Difficult issues are e.g. war, or conscription.)

e) Submit to the elders of the church
Hebrews 13:17. They may not be titles ‘elders,’ but those who are spiritually mature. We know them intuitively.

f) The younger submit to the older
1 Peter 5:5. Older in the Lord or in years of life – they will have gained insights and wisdom it would be folly to ignore.

g) All submit to one another
(Eph. 5:21, 1 Peter 3: 8-9) (Also compare Gal. 1: 16-17 with Gal. 2:2 where ‘communicated’ is the word for ‘submitted’) No one is above needing to submit to one another.

____________________________________________

5. Why we should submit
i) Obedience – God tells us to
ii) For our spiritual growth and learning. Heb. 13:7, 11 Thess. 3: 7, 9. So we don’t have to learn everything the hard way! Prov. 12:15, Psalm 121: 5
iii) For discernment of truth, for guidance and direction, confirming God’s word to us. Indecision or being under pressure are two signs that it’s a good time to submit a situation.
iv) Vision
v) Protection. 1 Timothy 2: 1-2, Mark 3:27. Also notice Eph. 5 comes just before Eph. 6. Submission then spiritual warfare
vi) Authority. God gives authority to those who submit themselves willingly. Prov. 29:23, James 4: 6, 10, 1 Peter 5:, 5-6, Philippians 2: 5-11

______________________________________________

6. When we disagree with authority

Sometimes we “submit” with no problem – until we’re crossed! Daniel 1: 1-21. Daniel had lots of good stories happen to him – because he was submissive. The crisis in verse 8. Disagreed with leadership. Had to determine why. Is it a matter of preference on our part? If so, then just obey. If it’s a matter of conviction, before God’s commands which conflict with leadership’s, then we can consider not obeying. When God wants us to have authority He will generally first put us in a difficult situation under someone else where our submission is tested. Is there a scriptural basis to support us if we disagree? When we’re sure that what God is telling us goes against what we’ve been told, then 1) Determine to obey God, 2) Don’t rebel silently – but instead speak out openly, 3) Make sure we also communicate our internal submissive attitude. If our attitude is unyielding
the person in authority is likely to become more unyielding. How can we serve and please that person in authority? Look for ways. Try to see the situation from their point of view. (Often there will be some sort of alternative way out that no-one has thought of yet, that can be acceptable to both parties and God. Whatever happens we need to remain open and not be rebellious in attitude.) We should have a real grief in our hearts that we need to disobey. If we secretly are delighted then our attitude is wrong. (Daniel was really grieved in having to disobey King Darius.) Also we must submissively accept the consequences of our disobedience – it may be a lion’s den or a Philadelphian jail (Acts 16) but we can still pray, and still praise God. Can you imagine Shadrach Meshach and Abednego struggling not to be thrown in the fiery furnace!?