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A young man was once invited to attend church and so he went. That Sunday, he heard the gospel and believed in Jesus for eternal life. As a result, he started reading his Bible, praying, and looking for ways to serve God with all of his energy.<\/p>\n
Of course, being a new Christian, he sometimes let his zeal get the best of him. He began to criticize those who had been Christians much longer than he had, yet who did not seem to have the same dedication he did.<\/p>\n
He also began to see various aspects of the church he attended which he thought did not agree with certain teachings in the Bible. So he began to criticize the church leaders.<\/p>\n
Finally, a little fed up with the poor state of American Christianity, he decided that the best thing he could do was go somewhere else to start a new church. He wanted to be a missionary at home or overseas to start his own ministry the way he thought it should be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cBesides,\u201d he thought, \u201cisn\u2019t being a missionary the ultimate form of Christian service and dedication?\u201d<\/p>\n
Some people in his church tried to tell him that he needed training and time to grow into Christian maturity, but he thought they were just holding him back. And so there were more clashes.<\/p>\n
Finally, the young man went to seek the advice of a wise old pastor. \u201cI believe God wants me to be a missionary,\u201d he told the pastor. \u201cBut I\u2019m not sure whether He wants me to be a home missionary or a foreign missionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wise, old pastor, who had watched this young man during the past few years struggle with other Christians around him, looked the young man straight in the eye and said, \u201cYoung man, what you need to be first of all is a \u2018submissionary.\u2019 Before you can go on a mission, you need to learn what submission is.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n You see, what this young man did not realize is that being a missionary is not the greatest form of service we can give to God. No, the greatest thing God calls us to do is submit. And we can do that wherever we are and whatever we are doing.<\/p>\n No one can truly serve God until they have learned to submit to God.<\/p>\n Now this young man, we can be sure, thought he was submitting to God. He was giving his life and energy to be used by God. How is that not submission?<\/p>\n But submission to God means submission to the will of God, and as we are going to see today in Ephesians 5:21, one aspect of the will of God is that we submit to\u2026one another. That is where this young man fell short. So focused on submitting to God, he never learned that God wanted him to submit to other Christians.<\/p>\n That is what we\u2019re going to see today in Ephesians 5:21. We are in a section of Ephesians where Paul tells us what it looks like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We\u2019ve seen that being filled with the Spirit is not at all like what most Christians today portray it as.<\/p>\n It is not primarily an emotional, ecstatic experience. Rather, it is knowing and obeying the will of God as taught within Scripture (Eph 5:17), it is evidencing the fruit of the Spirit (Eph 5:18; Gal 5:22-23), it is singing in your heart (Eph 5:19), it is giving thanks always for all things (Eph 5:20), and today, finally, in Ephesians 5:21, it is submitting to one another.<\/p>\n Ephesians 5:21. \u2026 submitting to one another in the fear of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n Let us look at this verse very carefully today. Beginning with that first word \u2013 submitting.<\/p>\n Some of your translations might say \u201cBe subject to.\u201d Both carry the same idea, and are just different ways to translate the same Greek word. The word is hupotasso<\/em>.<\/p>\n It is an old military term for lining up under your commanding officers, for standing in rank. So when Paul uses the term here, it carries the idea for us, of knowing who your commanding officers are and obeying them just as if you were in the military. You need to know who to take your orders from.<\/p>\n So that is what the word means, and I have it here as submission. <\/strong>But, when we begin to think of it as a military term, we immediately begin to think of power and position and authority. Which is fine, because it does mean that.<\/p>\n The problem, however, is that this world has an incorrect idea of what gives a person power, and how that power should be used.<\/p>\n A worldly definition of submission is, \u201cI have the power and the money, so you had better submit to me or else!\u201d<\/p>\n We also begin to look around for those who have more power and position than us, so that we can butter them up. A worldly understanding of submission includes knowing who you have to submit to and also knowing who has to submit to you. When we think of submission, we start looking around and saying, \u201cWell, OK, I have to obey that person and that person, but at least these other three people have to obey me.\u201d<\/p>\n When we think of submission, we develop a pecking order in our minds, and where we fit in on the ladder.<\/p>\n But biblical submission is not at all like this. When Jesus Christ came, He turned all of this on its head.<\/p>\n Turn to Luke 22:24-30 to see this. In this passage, the disciples of Jesus were arguing about who would be the greatest in His kingdom. Each of them thought they were faithfully loving and serving God, and believed that as a result, they should have the greatest position of power and prestige when Jesus inaugurated His kingdom.<\/p>\n But Jesus says to them, \u201cYou have it all backwards. The kings and rulers of this world seek the greatest positions of power and importance. But it is not this way in My Kingdom. In My Kingdom, the greatest are those who serve.\u201d Jesus points out that He Himself came to serve others, and so if they were truly His followers, they would not seek greatness, but would only seek to serve others.<\/p>\n Jesus says something similar in John 13. In this passage, Jesus and the disciples are all about to share in the Last Supper. But before they do, Jesus takes a basin of water and a towel and begins to wash all the filth and grime from the feet of His disciples. Washing someone\u2019s feet was one of the most menial and degrading tasks a person could do for someone else at that time.<\/p>\n Since the streets were made mostly of dirt, and since people rode horses through the streets and used donkeys to transport goods in wagons, the streets were also filled with animal droppings. Then when it rained, it all became a muddy mess. So when you walked through the streets in your sandals, your feet became filthy.<\/p>\n Furthermore, when people ate meals back then, they sat on the ground, and so it was not uncommon to have someone else\u2019s feet somewhat near your face. Therefore, most households had a servant who would watch all the filth from the feet of the family members and guests before they sat down for a meal. This job was usually reserved for the lowest servant because it was so degrading and disgusting.<\/p>\n But in John 13, Jesus takes the position of this servant and washes His disciples\u2019 feet, showing that in His Kingdom, the greatest among them is actually the one who serves in the lowest positions.<\/p>\n So we see a couple of lessons here about submission. Worldly submission asks, \u201cWho do I have <\/em>to serve, and who has<\/em> to serve me?\u201d But Godly submission says, \u201cI am the lowest on the ladder, and so I will serve everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n Philippians 2:3 says \u201cLet <\/em>nothing be done <\/em>through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself\u201d (cf. also Rom. 12:10).<\/p>\n That\u2019s the first aspect of Godly submission. You and I are the servants of everybody else. There is no one lower who must submit to us.<\/p>\n But there is a balance here. Godly submission does not mean that if you have money, or if you have power, or if you have a position of authority that you must give it up.<\/p>\n No, on the contrary. Godly submission says, \u201cI have power and so I will use it<\/em> to serve you.\u201d<\/p>\n Positions of authority and power are very Biblical. But, power and money are given to people by God, not so that they can rule, but so that they can better serve. The more power you have, the greater responsibility there is to use that power to serve others.<\/p>\n Do you have power? Great. Use it to serve. Do you have money? Wonderful. Use it to serve others.<\/p>\n That is exactly what Paul says next in Ephesians 5:21. He has said we need to submit, and then he tells us to whom we need to submit.<\/p>\n No, just as with every other passage in the Bible, this verse must be taken in context. There are some who rip this verse out of context and teach that we must serve and submit to every single person on the planet.<\/p>\n I\u2019m walking a fine line here, because there is some truth to that. As Christians, we are the servants of the world. But as Christians, we are not supposed to be subservient, groveling doormats to the world.<\/p>\n In context, we are servants to the world only as far as the will of God allows. We should not serve the world in its efforts to cheat the poor, or hide the truth, or kill the innocent. No, in this case we need to serve the truth.<\/p>\n Jesus modeled this perfectly. He came to be a servant, but about half of Jesus\u2019 ministry is spent standing up to those who were abusing their power. He cleanses the temple, He rebukes the religious leaders for their hypocrisy, He corrects false ideas and false teachings.<\/p>\n In other words, being submissive to one another does not include being submissive to those who are working against the will of God. That\u2019s the limitation.<\/p>\n But in those areas that are the will of God, we are to serve wholeheartedly. We are to serve as though we were the lowest person on the ladder. That is what Paul is calling us to here.<\/p>\n Now this was unheard of in Paul\u2019s day, and, Ephesians 5:21 is quite revolutionary even today.<\/p>\n To see this, look at the chart I prepared this week showing us the different forms of mutual submission Paul calls us to. We are going to look at all of these in detail in the weeks to come, but for now, notice that the right half is quite challenging to our ways of thinking.<\/p>\nWhat is Submitting?<\/em><\/h2>\n
To Whom Should we Submit? One Another<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Paul says in the next part of Ephesians 5:21 that we should submit to one another. <\/strong>This one another <\/strong>is not all-encompassing, but is rather a qualifying term. Paul is actually telling us who to limit<\/em> our submission to. He is really not saying, \u201cSubmit to every single person on the face of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Just so you know, there is a bit of a textual variant here. Some of your translations say \u201cin the fear of Christ.\u201d Others say, \u201cin the fear of God.\u201d We don\u2019t know which word Paul originally wrote, but at some point, while the text was being copied by hand, some scribe accidentally changed the word. Then his mistake was copied by other scribes, until now, out of all the ancient Greek manuscripts that are available, about half say \u201cGod,\u201d and about half say \u201cChrist.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Mutual](\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/submission-filled-with-spirit.jpg\")
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