It seems, in the last week, that our nation has erupted into craziness. And, unfortunately, with the tragedies of death and violence that have occurred, it seems that the social networks have erupted with everyone’s opinion about what’s right, why things have happened, and what should happen next. People are even arguing about whose life matters or matters more!
"Your life matters. It matters to God and it matters to me." Maybe that’s what we should be shouting: "Your life matters!" Because when we start taking "sides" in this insane debate, we communicate that we need for someone to think our life matters. They think our arguments are all about us and that we are ignoring their cries of pain, of fear, of frustration.
Oh, Church, we need to begin to think about someone other than ourselves! We need to get out of our own self-centeredness and begin to reach out to those around us, those next door to us, those standing in line behind us. We need to begin to start ministering and stop trying to change what we were never called to change.
We need God to change us so that we can become who we were meant to be. We need to stop being self-willed and learn how to submit to God and to His plan for this hurting world.
"The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed." (2 Peter 2:9-10 a NKJV)
This issue of submission, surrender, and authority goes to the very heart, both of the matter and of our hearts as believers. One might even ask if it is at all possible to truly be a believer and not understand and practice submission. There is, within scriptural teaching, these two ideas standing in opposition to each other: despising or rejecting authority and submitting to those around us.
John H. Westerhoff III, an Episcopal priest and professor at Duke Divinity, wrote in his book, Living the Faith Community: The Church that Makes a Difference:
"The typical church person living in any historic Christian denomination has been so influenced by the modern spirit of individualism and its social expression, relativism, that it is almost impossible for persons in any denomination to reach agreement on what is central and fundamental for religious or moral life. When you bring up the issue of authority, almost everyone becomes uneasy. We no longer have an authoritative tradition. We have lost our corporate moorings and, thus, communal life has been made next to impossible.
"Authority has a poor reputation with most of us; liberty is more popular. But liberty that holds authority in contempt is but a mask of self-will. The question, therefore, is not one of authority or no authority, but What is our authority? To what do we give obedience?" (p. 41)
There are three issues in this portion of Westerhoff’s book:
• To whom or what do we give obedience? To whom or what do we surrender?
• Where does judging of others fall into this paradigm?
• How important is submission in the life of the believer and how does that intersect with civil disobedience, tough love, and standing one’s ground for one’s beliefs?
To Whom Do We Submit?
Paul dealt with surrender/submission in Romans 6 when he wrote:
"For we know that our old self was crucified with Him [Christ] so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." (v. 6).
There is a very important concept hidden within this verse (and within v. 14, 16, 18), and that concept is this: People who are unsaved are slaves to sin! The Greek word is douleuo and means "1 to be a slave, serve, do service. 1a of a nation in subjection to other nations. 2 metaph. to obey, submit to. 2a in a good sense, to yield obedience. 2b in a bad sense, of those who become slaves to some base power, to yield to, give one’s self up to." (Strong’s G1398). There are some very important connotations here. First, the slavery is self-chosen; those who are unsaved have chosen by their rejection of Christ and His gift of salvation to become slaves to sin. Second, the slavery involves service. As a slave, one serves the master, doing the master’s will without recourse. The unsaved serve sin without the ability to question or turn from the sin. They are slaves and have yielded their obedience to sin, to the rejection of God, to rebellion against Him. Third, they have fully given themselves up to the sin.
So, initially there is this issue of surrendering ourselves to sin or surrendering ourselves to God. What’s interesting about Paul’s premise in Romans 6 is that there is no other option, no middle ground of any kind. We are either slaves to sin or slaves to God; we either surrender to sin or surrender to God; we either submit to sin or submit to God. And, in Romans 2, Paul makes it clear that those who are self-seeking are those who are submitting to sin:
"For those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and following evil . . ." (v. 8 NIV).
The act of self-seeking is the act of rejecting God’s truth. The act of self-seeking is the act of refusing to submit to God’s authority, to His will. Westerhoff wrote: " liberty that holds authority in contempt is but a mask of self-will." And so that first step in obedience is submission to God’s authority, surrender to His will.
We are first to submit to God.
Because Father God knew that we could, in our self will, say that we are submitting to Him when we are actually submitting to sin, He also outlined what obedience and sin looks like.
In Galatians 5, Paul compares the "works of the flesh" (self-will/sin) and the "fruit of the Spirit" (submission to the Holy Spirit):
"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
(Galatians 5:19-26 NIV)
Paul is explicit in stating a list of sins and ending with "and the like," meaning that the list isn’t inclusive; there are (many) other sins. But as believers, we are no longer enslaved to our "flesh," but instead are to submit ourselves as slaves to righteousness. We are to live out the fruit of the Spirit all of the time.
"Fruit" is singular, meaning that this list isn’t a list of separate characteristics, but rather is a concise description of the submitted Christian life. We can’t be loving if we aren’t good. We can’t be faithful if we’re not joyful. We can’t be gentle if we’re not self-controlled. And all of this has to do with completely submitting to God. Submission to God is first and that is what it looks like.
We are also to submit to other believers.
"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world." (1 Peter 5:5-9 NKJV).
Peter begins this passage with an admonition to younger people to submit themselves to their elders. Now, we have to be careful with this because this isn’t permission for those of us who are older to lord over those who are younger. (Peter follows with stating that we all are to be submissive to each other.) Rather, I think this is much more about becoming life-long learners.
It’s been awhile since I was "young," but I still, in many ways, feel immature. There are so many things that I need to learn and so much that I still don’t know. And that feeling isn’t exclusive just to me. I had a very dear adopted aunt, a great saint of the Lord (and a worldwide minister), who told me in her very senior years that she was realizing how much she didn’t know about being a Christian. At the time (and I was much younger), I was astonished because I greatly admired and looked up to her as a great saint of the faith. Now that I’m approaching that age myself, I totally understand what she was saying. As we grow older, we become wiser, not in having all the answers, but in realizing how many of the answers we don’t have!
Another one of my adopted aunts was always learning. She cultivated relationships with younger people in order to learn from them and keep current. (She even bought her first computer at age 78 and diligently learned how to use it.)
That being said, there is an arrogance that seems to come with youth. For those of us who are older, we all remember when we were in our 20s and how much we thought we knew. Then as we aged, we realized how little we actually knew at that time. I think that arrogance is what Peter is talking about, admonishing young people to continue to look to their elders. If I had been more humble in my 20s and looked to my parents for guidance, there are many mistakes I think I wouldn’t have made, many consequences I wouldn’t have had to live.
But all of us can learn from each other. All of us need to have a teachable spirit, need to want to be learning, need to listen to what others have to say. We are to submit to each other, both in learning situations and in life itself:
"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." (Philippians 2:1-4 NIV).
Value others above ourselves. Looking to the interests of others, rather than to our own interests. Submitting to others in the Body of Christ. Being a Christian is about serving others, not getting for ourselves.
"They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all..’" (Mark 9:33-35 NIV).
Submitting to other Christians is being a servant. And not just a servant sometimes or to some people, but the servant of all. Whoever wants to be first must be the very last. This is the will of God.
"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God." (Ephesians 5:17-21 NKJV).
Sometimes we might ask what the will of God is for our lives. His will is to be filled with the Spirit (actively and only living out the fruit of the Spirit), worshiping Him together with others and alone, giving thanks for everything, and submitting to each other! Father God is less concerned about where we are (our circumstances) and much more concerned about who we are (our character). And our godly character begins and ends with submission: Submission to Him and then submission to those around us.
We are finally to submit to everyone around us.
"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:38-44 NKJV).
What is the Lord Jesus actually saying to us?
First, He is talking about how we relate to nonbelievers. Pon ros means evil and is particularly used to describe Satan. We know that we are commanded (1 Peter 5:5 and James 4:7) to resist the devil in the sense of not choosing to sin, so that can’t be the meaning here. When we look at the context, Jesus is obviously talking about those nonbelievers who want to either take from us or persecute us by forcing us to feel pain or sorrow. We are to love our enemies. Why? Because they are also those for whom Christ died. And in loving them, we are to do more than they asked of us. If we are asked to walk one mile, we are to walk two. If we are asked to give our tunic, we are also to give our cloak.
How might that look in our society?
I think that first we have to understand what our obligation is to the unsaved around us. Let’s look at this example that Jesus gives. Rather than trying to compel the unsaved to stopping sinning, the Lord Jesus commands us to treat them with great mercy, even to the point of seeming to walk beside them as they were in sin. Under Roman law, soldiers could compel Jews to walk one mile, carrying the soldier’s equipment. While this was legal, it was obviously immoral. It was asking a free person to work as a slave, even though temporarily. It was also asking that the free Jew ignore his legal freedom and even his own obligations while seeing to the needs (and comforts) of the oppressor.
"Well," you might say. "Isn’t that being complicit in the sin of the soldier? That Jew didn’t have any reason to become a slave, even temporarily. That soldier was being mean and demanding. If that person walked willingly, not only for one mile, but two miles, how is that not buying in to that soldier’s arrogance, narcissism, and desire for power?"
It is, actually. There is a real sense of complicity in this command, at least from one perspective. And do we sin when we come alongside a sinner who is sinning? The Lord Jesus has made it very clear that we do not sin when we submit to the needs, requests, and even demands of the unsaved around us. Rather we exhibit the finest character of God, loving them unconditionally and fully while they are still sinning: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NIV). In fact, the way in which we view others should be completely different once we are saved:
"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NIV).
We are:
• To regard no one from a worldly point of view.
• To not count people’s sin against them.
Notice that Paul is imploring the Christians of Corinth to be reconciled to God through their love to others. How can we minister reconciliation to others? By submitting to them, by loving them unconditionally.
As a side note, I feel compelled to address a concept that has been permeating the Church at large and that is the idea of "tough love." Even if we haven’t articulated that this is how we love those we don’t like, it is, in a very real sense often what is happening.
The term "tough love" is actually very new to American culture (originating in 1976), but has been embraced as both a parenting model and use in interventions for addictions. (On a secular note, it has been found to not be highly successful in changing behavior). Some Christians have embraced this concept as a rational for being brutally honest with those who disagree with them. In essence, I can tell you you’re wrong and I can tell you how wrong you are because I actually am loving you by doing so.
The problem that I have with this is that this model of love is used sparingly in scripture. And, in every case that it was used, the person using it (who was usually God or Jesus) had an authoritative relationship in the situation. Even the Apostle Paul, when he spoke firmly to others, had an apostolic relationship to the churches to whom he was writing. What, then, is the difference? I believe that the difference between our use of "tough love" and God’s is our willingness to actually sacrificially love.
Let’s look at what God did. His "tough love" (actually called judgment) was to say that the "wages of sin was death" (Romans 6:23) and then HE died. In other words, He was willing to take the natural consequences of our sin upon Himself because He loved us. The concept of "tough love" is to be blunt (brutal?) in telling the person what is "right" and then allowing the natural consequences of their decisions to occur. God’s concept of love is to lovingly tell us what is right and then to take the consequences of our decisions upon Himself. God submitted Himself to our decisions so that we could live with Him!
Are we willing to do that? For each other? For those around us? How can we submit more to God in order to become more like Christ? How can we submit to each other in the Church, meeting needs and pouring ourselves out for them? How can we submit to those around us who are hurting and angry and afraid?
I am becoming convinced that we need to demand less that the culture around us change to make us more comfortable and that we need to be willing to sacrifice our comforts, our schedules, our pleasures, and even our own needs in order to minister to a world that desperately needs the love of God in their lives.
Are we willing to learn to say to everyone around us: "Your life matters. It matters to God and it matters to me. What can I do to love you?"
(c) 2016 Robin L. O'Hare. All Rights Reserved.
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