Joyful Submission in the Spirit (Ephesians 5:21)

How do you talk about submission without offending anybody or everybody? Well, you either pretend it doesn’t really exist… Or, you choose to let God’s word speak for itself without setting your own agenda. (If I offend you unnecessarily, then I’ll apologize. If God’s word steps on your toes, then move your feet!)

So here it is: Spirit-filled believers are marked by joyful submission in reverence for Christ.

[Read Eph. 5:1-2, 8&10, 15-21. (& Pray!) ]

[Again] Be filled with the Spirit to submit with joy in fear of Christ. (The command is clear but the follow-through gives us more than a wee bit of trouble because we want control. Just ask our littlest shining daughter. I don’t think she can explain it. But stick around 30 minutes and she’ll put it on display. Hang around me for a day and I probably will too. Why? Because we are rebellious by sinful nature. So then how in ‘tarnation’ do we learn to submit as we ought to?)

1. [Before we attack ‘that there di-lemma,’ let’s find our place in the text]
   1. Grammatically, submitting is the final participle tying back to the verb “be filled” in v. 18, which itself ties back to explaining how to walk in wisdom (v. 15). – It concludes the list of what characterizes Spirit-filled living.
   2. Thematically, it is also a transition point for all the illustrations that follow of having a spirit of submission in divinely ordered relationships in the household of faith.
2. A proper understanding of Spirit-filled Submission involves (three things): [countdown]
   1. #3 Appreciate divinely ordered relationships – God is author of all good and is himself perfect authority over all. Even as flawed as we people are, God has ordained relationships of submission and authority for order (and for our protection and blessing).
   2. #2 Joyful willingness of spirit – Like with all things Jesus teaches, submission is just an item on a list of religious behaviors. It’s a heart attitude that matches the heart attitude of our Lord and Savior.
   3. #1 Reverence for Christ  Submission to others is ultimately about submitting control to God the Son as the Lord of your life and everything in it.

• #3 [To make this point, let’s define our terms – actually just the main term, submit]
  1. ὑποτάσσω literally means to ‘arrange under’ and carries the particular idea of order.
     1. In the active voice is to ‘place under’, ‘subordinate’… and in the middle [voice] to ‘order oneself under’ a leader, to ‘subject oneself’ out of fear, or to ‘submit oneself voluntarily’ (O’Brien).  Here it is middle voice = both voluntary and out of fear of our supreme leader. (Our next point #2 is that such a joyful willing attitude is key. #3 is that we submit out of fear of Christ.)
     2. In every instance that I find in the N.T., it implies that someone is ‘over’ and another ‘under.’  When did authority and submission become bad words? – I believe that our flesh chafes against them because we do not properly understand and desire God’s authority over us and our submission under Him!
     3. Furthermore, it is indeed right to understand a spirit of submission that should be the mark of all believers. (That is in fact the point of v. 21 – read it again)
        1. But to overextend to say that it expresses a unilateral ‘mutual submission’ is to misconstrue the semantic range of the term. Not to mention redefining the plain meaning of the context that follows.
        2. It’s the “one another” that gives us a little trouble here, but it doesn’t have to. Often ‘one another’ is intended to be reciprocal: examples are Eph. 4:25, and the command to love one another in John 13:34-35, among others.  But not always is it reciprocal: When Rev. 6:4 speaks of men slaying one another b/c peace is taken from the earth, it isn’t suggesting that each person kills the other at precisely the same moment. (Although such a seen was probably crafted in the mind of Shakespeare.) Nor does ‘bearing one another burdens’ in Gal. 6:2 mean that we just swap stress with our friends. (You take mine, I’ll take yours.) It’s suggesting that those who are currently more able should help bear the burdens of those who are less able or are with difficulty shouldering an extraordinary amount.
        3. It is also perfectly true that we should act in a thoughtful and courteous way, showing mutual kindness and respect. That just isn’t what THIS term means.
     4. A definition: Submission is a joyful willingness to surrender leadership to another in fear of Christ. (to surrender your desires to the desires of another)
  2. Spirit-filled submission means we rightly view divinely ordered relationships. It also means a joyful willingness of our spirit. That’s #2.  In our fallen nature, we are not inclined toward a submissive spirit. We have a strong propensity to resist authority, to assert control for ourselves, and to highly esteem our own desires.
     1. In our new nature, we should not view submission negatively, making excuses about inequality. – Consider the Godhead. Father, Son, and Spirit are equally God in every respect, but there is in the Trinity “an eternal and inherent expression of authority and submission.” (Bruce Ware) The Son submits to the Father and the Spirit to the Son and the Father. “Both authority and submission are good, for both are expressive of God himself.” (Bruce Ware)
     2. There is a very real connection to humility here. Feel the crescendo toward this concept from the joy of Spirit-filled singing, and a Spirit-filled thankful heart to God, and now an appropriate Spirit-filled lowliness in fear of Christ that inclines us to willingly submit with joy to those God has placed in leadership over us. – There is a meekness and gentleness and joy in God at work behind the scenes to enable Spirit-filled submission. Submission isn’t weakness but meekness. It is a sign of maturity and self-control. [Have you seen a large dog adopt a small child with admiring gentleness?]
     3. Do you have a Holy Spirit-filled joyful willingness of spirit? -God has established authority.
        1. As you submit to God’s authority over you? To the governing authorities? (Rom. 13:1) To your church leaders? (Heb. 13:17) [And here in Eph 5-6] A wife with her husband? (And husbands to sacrificially love their wives) As children who are to obey their parents? As workers laboring for those over them?
        2. Carefully think and pray through this: Am I a submissive person? Or do I tend to make excuses for my rebellious attitude and posture b/c well, they don’t deserve my respect and submission? (Good luck finding any flawless leadership to follow other than Christ.) Do I have a spirit of joyful willingness to submit to the leadership of others for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do I pray for God’s empowering grace to give me a submissive spirit?
     4. Again, consider Christ’s humility to be like him. – Rather than being embittered against submission, think of submitting to another as voluntarily yoking yourself neck and neck with Christ in reverent fear of God.
  3. #1 When we are continually filled with the Spirit to walk wisely, we can joyfully and willingly submit to the leadership of others because we do not fear men but our Lord Jesus Christ.
     1. What does it mean to submit in Fear of Christ? – Fearing Christ means to live a life with awe in the presence of the one who is Lord over all and the coming Judge. (There is an alertness to the reality and danger of sin AND a sincere desire to be pleasing to God.)
     2. We really need to make sure we get this: You do not submit because you fear man, but rather because you fear Christ. The fear of man causes us to fear what man may do to us and to seek the approval of men. (This was the piercing accusation of Jesus against the religious leaders.)
     3. Did Jesus fear men or fear God? Why does that matter to you? (Isaiah 53:2-6) – Let’s follow Christ’s lead.  It was this Jesus, perfect Lord of the universe, who took all your sin and shame and suffered an excruciating, despised death on a cross to pay your penalty for sin. It was this Jesus, the God-man come to earth, who rose again from the grave to bring us peace with God and heal us from our spiritual deadness and raise us to spiritual life. This Jesus, who loved you and gave himself up for you, offers you reconciliation to God through faith in Him to become His follower.

– People of faith who fear God… our Lord Jesus, on the night that he would be betrayed by men to then be crucified for our sin, [he] used the illustration of bread and wine to commemorate the Passover occasion with new significance. And what I want to emphasize to you this time that we take communion together is that just as he died and rose again, we, his people, have died to sin and have been raised to new life in Christ to no longer live as the rest of the world does in fear of men, but to walk in holy fear in grateful awe of our holy Lord.