Obedience and Submission: June 2016
Table of Contents
Obedience and Submission
A submissive heart motivated by love produces willing obedience. Pride and self-will go together, so do humbleness and submission. “I delight to do Thy will, O my God” expresses the heart of Him who as a man “humbled himself and became obedient.” May we each yearn, as we meditate on the subject of Submission and Obedience, to be more like Him.
Fred, one of the most humble people I have ever known was one of the most submissive. He spent the last days of his life on earth in a retirement home of hundreds of people. It was not surprising to me that the staff of the home chose Fred as honorary king of the home. Our God has highly exalted Christ Jesus, his submissive, obedient Son and chosen Him to be King of kings and Lord of lords. God in His perfect time raises up those who willingly go down. On the last evening of His life our Lord Jesus expressed His appreciation for His disciples who followed him in His path of submission by telling them, “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.”
Submission and Obedience
At first glance, the words submission and obedience might seem to be synonyms, but there is a difference between them, and especially as they are used in the Word of God. The actual word “submission” is not used in Scripture, but the word “submit” is used twelve times. Both submission and obedience are important, for the words are not only used of mankind, but also are applied to our blessed Lord.
The word “obedience” has the thought of doing what is obligatory when we are under authority; it is a duty that is derived from a relationship to one under whose power we are. Thus obedience is rather an act which involves either doing something, or occasionally not doing something. Obedience may be rendered willingly or unwillingly. Submission, on the other hand, while embodying much of what is true of obedience, is rather an attitude, for it involves (at least in Scripture) a spirit of readiness to follow the will of another. It is more passive, involving acquiescence in what another wishes. Of course authority exists, or submission would have no meaning, but love is involved, and thus the whole focus is different. The difference may be slight, but it is very important.
Our Relationships
For example, in Scripture children are told to obey their parents, and servants are told to be obedient to their masters (Eph. 6:1,5). This is in order, for in each case those who are told to obey are under rule, and must do what they are told, even if in some cases the obedience is distasteful and difficult. On the other hand, wives are told to submit to their husbands, and brethren are exhorted to be in an attitude of submitting to one another (Eph. 5:21-22). We have the same expression in 1 Peter 5:5—“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility.” This is also appropriate to the relationship, for in a proper Christian relationship, the wife’s relationship to her husband is totally different to that of their children. Likewise, the relationship of brethren in Christ to one another is quite different from that of servants to their masters. In both of these latter cases, love and respect come into the picture, and the submitting is done on that basis.
The Lord’s Obedience
There are various spheres of submission and obedience in the Word of God, and we would like, with the Lord’s help, to consider a few of them. First of all, let us consider our blessed Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. In speaking of Him, we tread on holy ground, and thus would seek to keep within the language of the Word of God.
When He was a boy of twelve years old, we read of the Lord Jesus, concerning His earthly parents, that “he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them (Luke 2:51). Surely this was no mere obedience because of rule or authority, although the authority of the parents was owned. But it was the glad and spontaneous submission of One who, in all the perfection of His Person, took that place of obedience that belonged to the creature. He did not need to do so, but willingly came into this world, and submitted to what the Father’s will required. Thus His pathway is one of beautiful subjection to every legitimate authority in this world, and to whatever was normal and proper for a creature before God. Here was one object on which the eye of God could rest with real pleasure, for He could say, “For I do always those things that please him [the Father]” (John 8:29).
Obedient Unto Death
On the other hand (and again, we speak with the utmost reverence), the word submit, or be subject is not used when His sufferings on the cross are in view; rather, the word obedient is used. Thus we read that He became “obedient unto death” (Phil. 2:8), and that “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). This in no way implies that our blessed Lord did not gladly obey, for we also read that “Jesus ... who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). But Scripture emphasizes that the work on the cross was of such an extreme character, that our Lord’s holy nature shrank from it, with “sweat as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). Only the Father’s will, and His love to us, took Him there; thus His obedience is emphasized in Scripture, although surely submission was there as well.
Perfect Submission and Obedience
His submission and obedience were perfect, whether in His life down here, or His death on the cross. What wonder and worship fill our hearts, as we see that One, walking through this world, submitting to all that sin had brought in, whether from the condition of this world, or from the hatred of man! At every step we see His beauty and perfection, as He accepts all from the Father, and dispenses love and grace on every hand. To be sure, He could administer a stern rebuke when needed, but we would point out that this was done only when the Father’s glory was at stake. It was never done for personal reasons, or to defend Himself. Here was a submission that draws out only our admiration and praise.
At the cross all is brought to a head, for everything comes together there—the hatred of man, the power of Satan, the awfulness of the load of sin to be placed upon Him, the wrath of a holy God, and perhaps most penetrating of all, the forsaking of God. Yet He bore it all, and in love and grace, His obedience rises to a height never seen before, as He accepts the cup of wrath. Here was an obedience before which we stand in awe, as we gaze by faith on that scene.
But God will have an answer to all this, for man must either bow before that blessed Man as Saviour now, or face Him in a coming day as Judge. Even now, “Angels and authorities and powers” are “made subject unto him” (1 Pet. 3:22), but in a coming day He will be displayed in power and glory, and “as soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me” (Psa. 18:44). God’s answer to the cross will be to exalt that blessed One in this world—the same world that rejected Him.
Christ the Example
But the words submission and obedience have an application to us. In all this, Christ is an example to us. While in the garden of Gethsemane, He could tell His disciples to “watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). He prayed because of what was coming upon Him; they too needed to pray, for Satan would be there with temptation for them. When difficulties come into our lives, whether from our own failure, or simply in the pathway of faith, we need grace to face them, rather than to seek an easier path to sidestep them. As Satan sought to turn the Lord away from the pathway of obedience, so also he assails us, pointing out the painfulness of that path. If we listen to him, we may well turn aside from the walk of faith, and seek an easier road. But the difficult path is the path of life and uprightness before God, and God Himself is there. Also, the One who overcame is with us in that path, as our great high Priest. If we anticipate hard circumstances, it is well if we go to Him beforehand, for as another has said, “If we have gone through the trouble of circumstances with God beforehand, the circumstances themselves will be but the occasion of obedience, when they do come upon us.”
The tendency of the natural heart is to seek to avoid the trial, and then, instead of the glory of God, the path of self and disobedience will be before us. Again quoting another, “We choose iniquity instead of affliction.” All this is true even when we have brought the trouble upon ourselves, a situation all too common in the Christian’s life. If we leave the path of faithfulness, we either avoid the trial, or pass through with man. In both cases we make ourselves more miserable, and miss the blessing God has for us. If we go through the discipline with God, it loses its bitterness, and coming from the hand of God, will surely yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:11).
Submission to One Another
One final word on submission and obedience, when others are involved. We have already seen how that it is appropriate for children and servants to obey parents and masters, as those who are over them with authority. However, when it comes to our relationships with our brethren, once again we find both words used.
First of all, we are to be in submission to one another, for we read, “Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility (1 Pet. 5:5). Likewise, we read “submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Eph. 5:21). On the other hand, when it is a question of those in responsibility and authority in the assembly, there are times when the word “obedience” is used. Thus we are told, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account” (Heb. 13:17). The normal relationship among believers would be that of submission, whether to those in authority, or to one another. However, there may be times when simple obedience is necessary, even if we do not understand completely.
Government Authorities
When it comes to government in this world, once again both words are used. We are told to “be subject unto the higher powers,” and that we “must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake” (Rom. 13:1,5). There is to be an attitude of proper and willing subjection to the powers over us, because God has put them there. However, Titus was to tell the Cretians not only to “be subject to principalities and powers,” but also “to obey magistrates” (Titus 3:1). Sometimes the governments of this world are allowed of God to be composed of “the basest of men” (Dan. 4:17); then obedience is necessary, for their edicts can be very hard to accept, and even unreasonable. Of course, we are to obey “in the Lord,” which means that God’s authority and claims must take precedence over any rule of man. We must not violate our conscience before God, in obeying a ruler who would compel us to do wrong. But this is unusual, and in every other situation, the believer is called to obey, even that which is most trying.
Attitude
In summary, we can say that an attitude of submission is fitting for every Christian, for it is to follow in the steps of our blessed Lord and Master. He who took that place has left us an example. However, there may well be times in our lives when the path ahead seems so difficult, so unpleasant for us, that we must ask for grace simply to be obedient. This too is to walk in His steps, for He was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). We need grace from the Lord Himself, and a full sense of His love in our hearts, to walk in a path of submission and obedience, until He calls us home.
W. J. Prost
Obedience to God and Love to the Saints
Perfect obedience characterized the life of Christ here on earth. He was ever the dependent One, ever the obedient One. “In the volume of the book” it was written of Him, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Psa. 40:7- 8). And when on earth, He could say, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). And again, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). This was perfect obedience.
But His path of obedience to the Father was also the perfect exhibition of God’s love to man. His words, His ways, His acts, all spoke of God’s love to His guilty creatures. And the cross was the full revelation of this, together with the infinitely perfect expression of His obedience to God the Father. In the life of Christ as a man on earth perfect obedience and perfect love were united; and the life in which these were displayed in Christ is the life which, through grace, is imparted to the believer.
Life in the Believer
In Christ there was no imperfection. His was a life of perfect obedience— perfect love. In us there is much to hinder the manifestation of this life; yet the life in us is the same in its nature, its traits, and its characteristics—it is the same life. And whether in Him or in us, it is characterized by obedience. Obedience is the state in which it subsists. “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). No matter what our pretension may be, it avails nothing unless there is this obedience. “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).
The other characteristic of the divine life is not separated from this. Where there is obedience there will also be love, because they belong to the same life—the same nature. “Whoso keepeth his word”—this is obedience—”in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that
we are in him” (1 John 2:5). His word is the expression of what He is, of His nature; and “God is love,” so that if we keep His word, His love is perfected in us.
His Authority
But “His commandments” are not only the expression of what He is, but of His authority as well. We are called to obey, and to obey as Christ obeyed. We are sanctified unto the obedience of Christ. And if we say that we abide in Him, we ought also to walk even as He walked; that is, in obedience to God, for His whole life was that. There was not a single movement in His soul, not a single act of His life, which was not obedience to His Father’s will. Blessed indeed it is to behold that perfect One in His path of perfect obedience! And happy they who follow His footsteps, who walk even as He walked!
The New and Old Commandments
The commandment to obey as Christ obeyed, to walk as Christ walked, was not a “new commandment.” It was the word they had heard from the beginning in connection with the manifestation of the divine life in Christ. It was the Father’s commandment to Christ, according to Christ’s own words—”For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak” (John 12:49-50). So John says the commandment was “old.” Again, it was a “new commandment,” because true in Him and in us. The commandment was the expression of the divine life—”His commandment is life everlasting,” and was first seen in Christ. But now it is true in us too, “because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” God had come out through the cross, and the light of life was now shining for man, and dispelling the darkness. This life, for man, and in man, as the fruit of redemption, life in Christ, life in the Spirit, was a new thing. It is Christ in us, Christ as our life. The commandment is “old” because the obedience which characterizes this life was seen in Him which was from the beginning, “the word of life.” It is “new” because the same thing is seen in the believer now. If they were seeking something new, according to the Gnostic philosophy, the bane of Christianity in that day, the apostle John gives them this; but he would not disconnect it from Christ, the believer’s life, “that which was from the beginning.” “Which thing is true in Him and in you” (1 John 2:8).
Christ in Us
Until redemption was accomplished Christ remained alone. Now He is no more alone; we are in Him, and He in us. This is a wonderful truth, and it gives a wonderful character to the children of God. The Holy Spirit in us is the power of it all—the divine answer in us down here to all that Christ is in glory as a man. It is no longer Christ as a man walking alone in this world, but Christ in the saints, and the “eternal life” displayed in them. In John’s epistle, Christ is seen as “eternal life” down here in this world, first alone, and then in the saints; “which thing is true in Him and in you.” And this life, whether in Christ alone, or in Him and in us, is first an obedient life, and second a life of love.
Obedience and Love
1 John 2:3-8 is obedience and disobedience.
Verses 9-11 are love and hatred.
Obedience and love characterize those who are in the light. Disobedience and hatred characterize those who are in the darkness. A man may say he is in the light, but if he hates his brother, he is still in darkness, and has never seen the light. He knows not “the light of life.” But if we see the outgoings of divine love toward a brother, we can say, There is a man who dwells in the light. He has found God who is light; and having found the light, he has the love also, for “God is light,” and “God is love”; and we cannot have the one without the other, just as you cannot have the sun without having both light and heat.
Light and Darkness
The light casts out the darkness, and then there is no occasion of stumbling. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). And He who has shined in our hearts as light is love also. Wonderful grace to such as were once “darkness,” but now “light in the Lord!”
Have our eyes been opened to see the light? Have our hearts tasted the love? Oh! then to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour”; and to walk “as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:2, 8-10). Let us walk in the light and sunshine of His presence who could say, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God,” never swerving from this path, and who, “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 13:1).
Adapted from A. H. Rule
The Path of Loving Obedience
“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deut. 10:12-13).
It was all for their real good and full blessing to walk in the way of the divine commandments. The path of wholehearted obedience is the only path of true happiness; and, blessed be God, this path can always be trodden by those who love the Lord.
This is an unspeakable comfort at all times. God has given us His precious Word, the perfect revelation of His mind; and He has given us what Israel did not have, even His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, whereby we can understand and appreciate His Word. Hence our obligations are vastly higher than were Israel’s. We are bound to a life of obedience by every argument that could be brought to bear on the heart and understanding.
For Our Good
And surely it is for our good to be obedient. There is indeed “great reward” in keeping the commandments of our loving Father. Every thought of Him and of His gracious ways, every reference to His marvelous dealings with us should bind our hearts in affectionate devotion to Him in loving obedience. Wherever we turn our eyes, we are met by the most powerful evidences of His claim upon our heart’s affections, and upon all the energies of our ransomed being. And, blessed be His name, the more fully we are enabled by His grace to respond to His most precious claims, the brighter and happier our path must be. There is nothing in all the world more deeply blessed than the path and portion of an obedient soul. “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psa. 119:165). The disciple who finds his meat and his drink in doing the will of his beloved Lord and Master, possesses a peace which the world can neither give nor take away. True, he may be misunderstood and misinterpreted; he may be dubbed narrow and bigoted, and suchlike; but none of these things move him. One approving smile from his Lord is more than ample recompense for all the reproach that men can heap upon him. He knows how to estimate properly the thoughts of men; they are to him as the chaff which the wind drives away. The deep utterance of his heart, as he moves steadily along the sacred path of obedience, is:
“Let me my feebleness recline
On that eternal love of Thine,
And human thoughts forget;
Childlike attend what Thou wilt say,
Go forth and serve Thee, while ‘tis day,
Nor leave Thy sweet retreat.”
A Privileged People
In the closing verses of Deuteronomy 10, the lawgiver seems to rise higher and higher in his presentation of moral motives for obedience, and to come closer and closer to the hearts of the people. “Behold,” he says, “the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.” What a marvelous privilege to be chosen and loved by the possessor of heaven and earth! What an honor to be called to serve and obey Him! Surely nothing in all this world could be higher or better; to be identified and associated with the Most High God, to have His name called upon them, to be His peculiar people, the people of His choice, to be set apart from all the nations of the earth to be the servants of Jehovah and His witnesses. Nothing could exceed this, except that to which the church of God is called.
Higher Privileges
Assuredly, our privileges are higher, inasmuch as we know God in a nearer, more intimate manner than the nation of Israel ever did. We know Him as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as our God and Father. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, and leading us to cry, Abba, Father. All this is far beyond anything that God’s earthly people ever knew or could know; and, inasmuch as our privileges are higher, His claims upon our hearty and unreserved obedience are also higher. Every appeal to the heart of Israel should come home with augmented force to our hearts, beloved Christian, every exhortation addressed to them should speak far more powerfully to us. We occupy the very highest ground on which any creature could stand. Neither the seed of Abraham on earth, nor the angels of God in heaven could say what we can say, or know what we know. We are linked and eternally associated with the risen and glorified Son of God. We can adopt as our own the wonderful language of 1 John 4:17, and say, “As He is, so are we in this world.” What can exceed this, as to privilege and dignity! Surely nothing save to be, in body, soul, and spirit, conformed to His adorable image, as we shall be, before long, through the abounding grace of God.
Our Obligations
Well then let us ever bear in mind—yea, let us have it deep down in our hearts—that according to our privileges are our obligations. Let us not refuse the wholesome word obligation as though it had a legal ring about it. Far from it; it would be utterly impossible to conceive anything further removed from all thought of legality than the obligations which flow out of the Christian’s position. It is a very serious mistake to be continually raising the cry of legality whenever the holy responsibilities of our position are pressed upon us. We believe that every truly pious Christian will delight in all the appeals and exhortations which the Holy Spirit addresses to us as to our obligations, seeing they are all grounded upon privileges conferred upon us by the sovereign grace of God, through the precious blood of Christ, and made good to us by the mighty ministry of the Holy Spirit.
C. H. Mackintosh
Love and Obedience
The Correct Order
Love is the spring of obedience. Any obedience that does not spring from love is legality, servility, or selfishness. Christian obedience knows no other spring than love. The Christian obeys because he loves, and because he is loved. “If ye love me,” says the Lord, “keep my commandments.” Again, the apostle writes, “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
Our love to the Lord is but the response of our hearts to His love for us. “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Thus our love is the fruit of His—it is begotten by His, and is the result of it. We do not love Him in order that He may love us. That would be impossible. How could these wretched hearts force themselves to love one whom by sin they hate? The carnal mind is at enmity against God. Without the display of love on His side first of all—His love to us being free and spontaneous— there could be none on ours.
God’s Love in the Gospel
But, blessed be God, this is the very truth unfolded in the gospel of His grace! It was when we “were dead in trespasses and sins” that God loved us. It was when we were “yet sinners” that Christ died for us, and that God found occasion for this display of His own love. It was when we were hateful that the kindness and love of God appeared. And it was when we were lost that the Son of man came to seek and to save us.
Such is the truth of the gospel. The priority of the love of God to man before that of man to God is thus distinctly revealed. For “God so loved the world” in spite of all that man could do to discourage and repel it. Yet that timeless, changeless love beams on us like a sun that no cloud can darken. “God is love” is the grand and full explanation of why He is suffering long with that world which is day by day and year by year augmenting its mountain load of sin and opposition to Him.
The Question for Peter
There is a striking moral connection between the question the Lord asked Peter in John 21:17 and the command given to that apostle in the 22nd verse of the same chapter. The question is, “Lovest thou me”? And the command is, “Follow thou me.” The order is correct. Love is to precede obedience, and obedience is none the less to follow love. If the first can be established, the second will be secured. If the Lord can gain the heart, He can count upon getting the feet. And hence with divine wisdom He tests the affections of the apostle. “Lovest thou me”; who has so loved thee? And what was the answer of poor, heartbroken Peter? “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Beautiful avowal, and deeply grateful to the Lord! “Thou knowest all things,” said Peter, as though he would again have shed the bitter tears of penitence, and acknowledged the threefold denial of his loved and loving Lord and Saviour. “Thou knowest all things”—my weakness, my folly, my self-confidence, and my sin—my repentance, my anguish, my sorrow, too. “Thou knowest that Ι love thee.” If no one else should know it, Thou dost.
“Follow Me”
Then the Lord said, “Follow me”. If the Lord is really loved, He will likewise be really obeyed. Obedience will be proportionate to and commensurate with love. “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings;” as the love, so the obedience. There may be and are different degrees of intelligence as to His will, but the spirit of obedience will characterize all who really love Him. An obedient heart is His delight. Such a one will be trained and nurtured by Him and, as He says, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). Oh! that these three words, “Follow thou me,” may stand out in bold and clear relief before the grateful and loving gaze of our renewed affections, so that we may practically esteem Him worthy of all our obedience here.
May our inmost souls hear His question, “Lovest thou me?” and joyfully obey His command, “Follow thou me.”
Adapted from J. W. S.
The Believer’s Walk in Connection With Natural Relations
Ephesians 5:22-6:9
In this portion of the epistle we are exhorted as to the conduct that becomes Christians in connection with earthly relationships. The apostle first speaks of the most intimate of relationships, wives and husbands (Eph. 5:22-33), then of children and parents (Eph. 6:1-4), and finally of servants and masters (Eph. 6:5-9).
As individuals we own Christ as Lord, and the responsibilities of every relationship are to be carried out in the fear of the Lord. The wife is to be subject to her own husband “as unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:22); children are to obey their parents “in the Lord” (Eph. 6:1); fathers are to train their children in the “admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4); servants are to do “service as to the Lord” (Eph. 6:7); and masters are to remember that they have a Master in heaven (Eph. 6:9).
Wives and Husbands
Christian wives are exhorted to submit to their husbands in everything and Christian husbands are exhorted to love their wives. Special exhortations always have in view the particular quality in which the individual addressed is likely to fail. The woman is liable to break down in submission, and is therefore reminded that the husband is the head of the wife, and that her place is to be subject. The man is more prone than the woman to fail in affection, therefore husbands are exhorted to love their wives.
The wife is to be subject to her husband as the head, even as Christ is the Head of the church, and is the Saviour of these mortal bodies. Again, if the husband is exhorted to love his wife, it is after the pattern of Christ and the church, for he is to love “even as Christ also loved the church.” It may be thought that the standard set is very high, but what wife would mind being subject to a husband that loved her even as Christ loved the church, and what husband would cease to love a wife who was always subject as the church should be to Christ?
The apostle’s heart is so full of Christ and the church that he reminds us that “Christ is the head of the church,” that “Christ also loved the church,” and that Christ nourishes and cherishes the church. Amid all the difficulties we have to face, our unfailing resource is found in looking to Christ our Head for wisdom and guidance. In all our sorrows and the failure of human love, we can count on the unchanging love of Christ that passes knowledge. In all our needs we can count upon His care and provision. Let us remember too that He did not first make the church worthy to be loved, then love it and give Himself for it. He loved it as it was, then gave Himself for it, and now works to make it suitable to Himself. We are not satisfied if someone we love is not to our liking, and Christ will never be satisfied until the church is perfectly suited to Him.
Failure in Christendom
Sadly, Christendom has entirely failed to walk in the light of these great truths concerning Christ and the church. In practice it has ceased to give Christ His place as Head, and consequently has failed in subjection to Him. Therefore we need hardly be surprised at the failure to maintain the relationships of life, formed after the pattern of Christ and the church, leading, on the part of the woman, to a widespread revolt against subjection to the man, and, on the part of the man, to unfaithfulness and lack of love for the woman. The ruin of Christendom, the scattering of believers that has split Christendom into innumerable sects, can all he traced to two evils—professing Christians have abandoned the place of subjection to Christ that belongs to the assembly, and have usurped the place of authority belonging to the Head.
The beginnings of these evils were found in the assembly at Corinth. There the Christians set up leaders in the place of Christ, and then formed themselves into parties in subjection to their chosen leaders. The evil which had its beginning at Corinth is fully developed in Christendom, where clericalism has practically set aside the Headship of Christ, and independence has taken the place of subjection to Christ. Nevertheless, says the apostle, while seeking to enter into these eternal truths of the great mystery of Christ and the church, let each husband see that he loves his wife as himself, and let the wife rightly fear [respect] her husband.
Children and Parents
It has been remarked that the exhortations in Ephesians all commence with those from whom submission is due. The special exhortations are preceded by the general exhortation to submit yourselves one to another (Eph. 6:21).
The exhortations to submission are especially addressed to wives, children and servants, the wives being exhorted before the husbands, the children before the parents, and the servants before the masters. This order would seem to attach great importance to the principle of submission. Another has said, “The principle of submission and obedience is the healing principle of humanity.” Sin is disobedience and came into the world through disobedience. Ever since, the essence of sin has been man doing his own will and refusing to be subject to God. A wife who is not subject will make a miserable home; a child who is not subject will be an unhappy child; and a world not subject to God must be an unhappy and miserable world. Not until the world is brought into subjection to God, under the reign of Christ, will its sorrows be healed. Christianity teaches this subjection, and the Christian home should anticipate something of the blessedness of a subject world under the reign of Christ.
The obedience of the child is, however, to be “in the Lord.” This supposes a home governed by the fear of the Lord, and therefore according to the Lord. The quotation from the Old Testament, which connects the promise of blessing with obedience to parents, shows how greatly God esteemed obedience under law. Though in Christianity the blessing is of a heavenly order, yet in the governmental ways of God, the principle remains true that honoring parents will bring blessing.
Parents are not to bring up their children on the principle of law, which might lead them to say to the child, “If you are not good God will punish you,” nor are they to bring them up on the principles of the world, which have no reference to God. If they are trained simply with worldly motives, to fit them for the world, we must not be surprised if they drift into the world. Moreover, parents are to be careful not to irritate and repel their children, and thus destroy their influence for good by losing their affection. Their affections will be retained and the children kept from the world, only as they are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They are to be trained as for the Lord, and as the Lord would bring them up.
Servants and Masters
For the Christian servant to render obedience to an earthly master, a heart that is right with Christ will be required. Only as the servant of Christ, seeking from his heart to do the will of God, will he be able to serve his earthly master with “good will” (Eph. 6:7). What is done of good will to the Lord will have its reward.
Christian masters are to be governed by the same principles as the Christian servants. In all his dealings with his servants the master is to remember that he has a Master in heaven. He is to treat his servants with the same “good will” that he expects from the servants. Moreover, he is to forbear threatening, not using his position of authority to utter threats.
Finally, in all of these relationships, whether one is in authority, or in a place of submission, we are to remember that our general condition at all times is to be “submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God” (Eph. 5:21).
Adapted from H. Smith
Servants and Masters
Submission in Sorrow
Adapted from a letter of J.N.D. written to a husband whose wife had gone to be with the Lord, leaving him with four children.
I feel what a world of sorrow it is, and how real a share you have in that sorrow; but a world where, if sin and sorrow have entered in, grace has come in after them. Now love has risen above all the sin and sorrow, and, having entered into the worst of all it could bring on us, has given us a place out of it all. Into the place from which it flowed, the spirit of your dear wife has entered, and is with Him who entered into all that sorrow here that He might deliver us from it all. If you remain in the scenes of it down here, that very love has revealed itself by coming down into those scenes, that we might have it here. Jesus was a man of sorrows, and indeed none had sorrow like His. And His love is perfect sympathy as well as deliverance.
Look to this, dear brother, and you will find sympathy in your sorrow, and raising you out of it, not by destroying the feeling, but by coming into it, taking all human will out of that which causes regret and bitterness, and bringing His will into it, and Himself in love with us in it. His grace is sure, and in its path does not fail; nothing escapes or happens without it. This is a great comfort; first our will, subtle as it is, and meddling with the best affections, is broken and there is submission; then comes the sense of positive love. Any sense of failure even on our part, if such there be, is lost in the sense of the perfect love and ordering of God. He takes the place of the reasoning of our minds and all is peace. This is a wonderful thing, for after all, even as to our ways, we cannot answer Him nor account for one of a thousand. He does use all to set our hearts right, and gives softened peace like a river.
Nothing so Humble or Unselfish
Christianity substitutes what is obedience to a person for that of obedience to a law. In legal obedience a person fulfills a contract which he has undertaken. Christian obedience is like that of a slave (servant) to his master whom he loves. He does what his master tells him without a will of his own.
If I bid my child to do three things and he only does two of them, which he likes to do and takes his own way in the third, insubordination of will is as much shown by his disobedience in one point as if he had in all.
Christ’s obedience was perfect and is our pattern. He was put through every trial to see if there was in Him any unwillingness to obey—that is sin—and it could not be found. In the Garden of Gethsemane He chose rather to have God’s face hidden than fail to obey. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. There is nothing so humble or so unselfish as obedience. It supposes that we have no will of our own.
Christian Truth 9:336
Submission and Circumstance
It is not by a change of circumstances that we can be made happy, but by submission to the will of God.
H. E. Hayhoe
The Door to Knowing God
The Obedient Spirit
Submission
Fathers