Ephesians 5:21
The Strength of
Submission
Introduction:
Review Ephesians so far from chapter 1
through chapter 5. Then land on 5:21.
Illustration: Driving down a country road, I came to a very narrow bridge. In front
of the bridge, a sign was posted: "YIELD." Seeing no oncoming cars, I
continued across the bridge and to my destination. On my way back, I came to
the same one-lane bridge, now from the other direction. To my surprise, I saw
another YIELD sign posted. Curious, I thought, "I'm sure there was one
posted on the other side." When I reached the other side of the bridge I
looked back. Sure enough, yield signs had been placed at both ends of the
bridge. Drivers from both directions were requested to give right of way. It
was a reasonable and gracious way of preventing a head-on collision. When the
Bible commands Christians to "be subject to one another" (Ephesians
5:21) it is simply a reasonable and gracious command to let the other have the
right of way and avoid interpersonal head-on collisions. Stephen P. Beck.
Are you tough
enough to submit? Our sermon title today
is called, “The Strength of Submission”.
I chose that because there are a couple of ways to interpret that
title. One is this: It takes real strength to submit. The world says that your weak when you
submit. But, as usual, God flips
conventional worldly thinking upside down and we learn from God that actually
no, it’s not out of weakness that you submit, but, out of strength. Submission is not something you can do out of
spiritual weakness. You need real
spiritual strength from the Holy Spirit to live out this command. Spiritual strength leads to submission.
You can see it
the opposite way today too: submission
leads to strength. What do we mean? It
means that the result of submission is strength. How? Our
relationships are stronger when we are mutually submissive to one another - our
friendships, our marriages, our parenting, and so on.
Now undoubtedly submission
is a word that causes people to cringe in our society. Feminists have railed over this word for
decades. But it’s not just
feminists. Our country started because
we refused to submit to England.
Defiance is in our blood. It is
in our DNA as Americans.
But, as
Christians, submission is central to our entire way of living. We are commanded and exhorted all throughout
the NT to be submissive in every area of our lives:
-to
government (Rom. 13:1)
-to
employers (Col. 3:22-25)
-to
leaders of the church (Heb. 13:17)
-to
each other as brothers/sisters in the faith (Eph. 5:21; Gal. 5:13)
-to parents (Col.
3:20)
-to
husbands (Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1-3)
-to
God (James 4:7)
-to
suffering (1 Pet. 2:19-20)
-to
God’s discipline (Heb. 12:9)
-to
older saints (1 Pet. 5:5)
Submit: Definition
So
we see here just a sampling of the NT teaching on submission. It speaks to every area of our lives. Submit is a great word, and, I hope that we
will not only understand it better, but, no longer be afraid of it, and
actually walk away loving it. It is the
Greek word, “hupotasso”. Hupo means
“under” and “tasso” means “arrange in an orderly manner. So if you put the two words together it
means, “to place under in an orderly fashion”.
It is actually a
military term. It referred to the arrangement
of troop divisions. When commanding
officers shout at soldiers to fall in line, all the soldiers get into a certain
order under their commanding officer.
They arrange themselves the way they are supposed to be arranged. They “get in line”. That’s what it means.
Submitting yourself to someone else is the opposite of self-assertion, the opposite of an independent, autocratic spirit.
It is the desire to get along with one another, being satisfied with less than
one’s due, and to have a sweet reasonableness in your attitude.
Now I just want to draw 2 points out of verse 21. These will be very important as a setup for
our study of marriage in the following verses.
We aren’t specifically digging into marriage today, but, we everything
we say applies.
Submit: To One Another
Notice in the
verse who Paul says we are to be submitted to:
one another. Galatians
5:13 says it this way, “You, my brothers, were called to be
free. But do not use your freedom to
indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love.” We hear a lot about Christian service. And that’s a good thing. But Christian service means you make yourself
the servant of others. That is the
essence of submission. And it’s not just outward, but, inward
submission.
Illustration: A mother ordered her disobedient son to sit
in a corner. After a couple of minutes of sitting, he told his mother, “I’m
sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside!” He
obeyed, but he didn’t submit.
Our serving one
another must be done with a true inward submission towards one another. Philippians 2:3 says, “In humility consider others
better than yourselves.” This is
humility.
Well how do we
submit to one another? I think we need
to look no further than Ephesians.
Starting in chapter 4 Paul describes how our relationships should
look. He instructs us in how to live
with each other. And in order for us to
relate to each other in this way, we must submit ourselves to each other.
What if our
submission to Christ is measured by our submission to one another? Someone might say, “Well, I’m submitted to Christ, but, I’m not gonna submit to them!” But look at verse 21! In actuality Christ is telling you to submit
to that person so if you don’t then you are at the same time not submitting to
Christ who told you to do it. Our
relationship with Christ weaves together with our relationship with others. How we are with Him directly effects how we
are with others.
Think about the
greatest commandment: Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Okay, that’s you and God. But, Jesus said the second greatest commandment
was, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. That
has to do with your relationship with others.
But, they didn’t ask what the 2nd greatest command was. He added that in there. Why? I
think it’s pretty clear – if you love God you will love others. If you hate people that must mean that you
hate God. If you don’t submit to others,
does that reflect your unwillingness to submit to God too? Yes, it does.
Philippians 2:3, “in humility honor one
another above yourselves”.
-to leaders of
the church (1 Thess. 5:13; Heb. 13:17)
-to older saints
(1 Pet. 5:5)
-to parents (Eph.
6:1-4; Col. 3:20)
-to
husbands (Eph. 5:22-24; Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1-3)
-to each other as
brothers/sisters in the faith (Eph. 5:21; Gal. 5:13)
Submit: Out of Reverence
The
key to the unity of the Church and marriages and relationships is
submission. The key to submission is
reverence for Christ. Paul says, “submit
to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Actually it literally reads “in the fear of Christ.” We find this same kind of fear and reverence
in 1 Peter 1:18 when it says, “Since you call on a Father who judges each
man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” It comes up again in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Since
we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything
that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out reverence for God.”
What does it mean
to fear Christ? It doesn’t mean to be
terrified of Him. We know His love for
us and how He has saved us. ***Instead
it means to have a reverential awe of Him. It means to have the highest respect
for the One whose Name is higher than any other name, whose exalted by God to
the highest place, and who is supreme over all creation. It means to live with our most important
consideration being to make Him pleased with our lives.
Why is the fear
of Christ important to have as Christians? Well, in order to submit to each other, we
need to each be submitted to Christ. Now
this is why Paul’s first 3 chapters of Ephesians are so important. Paul spends chapters 1-3 describing how
awesome Christ is: He is the Head of the
Church. He is higher than any rule,
power, and dominion. He is the One who
brought us near through His blood. He is
the One who is the foundation of the Church.
He gives us access to the Father.
He is who we are being conformed to.
No
commandments. No instructions. No advice.
No suggestions. Just straight
teaching on the awe-creating identity of Jesus Christ. Why?
Because Paul is exalting your view of Christ. And, after you get exalted – that is your
view get’s exalted – after when you grasp what Paul is saying in chapters 1-3 then
you get that Jesus Christ is to be submitted to. He is worthy to be feared. He is worthy to be revered.
Once you get
that, now we can talk about submitting to one another. The
key to us submitting to one another is being submitted to Christ FIRST - out of
a reverence for Him. And we must see
that the reason we are submitted to each other is BECAUSE we have submitted to
Christ. To say this in another way: the result of reverence for Christ will be
humble submission to one another.
Conclusion:
Submit to the Command to believe on Jesus
Christ.
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