Scripture… As We Live It #204
This is the 204th passage in “Scripture… As We Live It.”
…submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. But, all of you should not submit to one another. Only some of you should submit to others. (Ephesians 5:21 re-mix)
(Please read the first post for an explanation of this series.)
Good one Alan.
Your’e gutsy.
The rest of the letter declares that our submission to Christ is mysterious, like a wife submitting to her husband. Maybe its a mystery because submission has a bad taste to many, especially many wives whose husbands require them to submit in an insensitive or overbearing spirit, or in a demanding way? And if their husbands are in ministry, they get it on both fronts. We seem to have reversed the shadow (husbands)with the reality (Christ). If earthly wives submission is where we learned our understanding of how we are to submit to Christ, and one another, then maybe that explains why the church has got submission wrong? For those who live in the law of liberty of Christ, we learn our earthly submission from our submission to Christ, and He didn’t leave a 12 step manual behind as He ascended. Neither did He inspire a topical analysis in scripture. We learn it subjectively, with risks, failures, like we do in our family’s,as we walk in submission to His Spirit, who will prompt and teach us how to submit to one another. It will be almost un-explainable, even mysterious to someone who does not have a humble spirit, and they will usually insist on a script or method by which submission is to be exacted, like a tax. So, we might conclude that the evidence that someone is walking and submitting to Christ as His bride is gauged by their submission to one another, including wives to husbands.
Teaching submission is necessary for children, and rebels, but if we have learned to walk in Jesus yolk we will find submission pleasant, safe and it is the soil in which deep and rich relationships grow.
This begs a further thorny question and I offer my convoluted experience and present understanding of the answer.
How do we respond to someone (your own husband?) who is overbearing, domineering, Levitical or otherwise insensitive?
Do we again have the shadow confused with the reality?
The civil law code (shadow) allows for refusal to submit to abuse of power and inequality, but the reality (the law of love in Christ) does not.Christ changes the abuser instead, while the abused submits to Christ as always.
The law of love is not mushy; it is a law, and it (Christ)commands us in many places to view and treat one another as if we are one united body, which includes feeling the pain anywhere else in our body.
Basic anatomy.
As such, He addresses US together, telling US to pay attention and deal lovingly but with firm purpose to that member that is causing pain, which the rest of the (healthy) body also (should) feel. Unlike civil courts, where justice can be bought and sold, He will rule justly, thru the court of His Body, endeavoring to bring the one hurting to submission to Him, thru one another.
So, whereas marriage among the brethren is between a man and woman, that sister or brother of us who is in pain, and cant heal alone with their spouse, calls on his/her brothers to assist.
If we wont help, and that’s too often the case, the net result is open wounds go unhealed, division often results and submission gets the blame, and a bad name.
Love is daring, and unorthodox if needed.
Jesus wrote the book on it.
Please attach comments to tip of arrows aimed at target on my chest.:-)
blessings Greg
Ah, submit one of the most mis-defined and mis-applied words in the new covenant scriptures.