What is the Mission of Submission?
Today we read 1 Peter 2:13-3:7 and talked about submission. Pastor Amy encouraged us to think about how we define submission since the term sometimes carries negative baggage or connotations with it. Amy reminded us that submission does not necessarily mean that we are forced, threatened, or bullied into compliance.We are given the example of Jesus as the best example of submission -His faith was not in those who judged Him unjustly but was in God, and therefore He submitted to God's will by being obedient. As much as submission is an action it is also an attitude. Jesus was also humble, patient, gentle, loving and compassionate.
Do you understand submission any differently after today?
My understanding of submission has been expanded to include the reason why we should be submissive. We should be submissive and live as Christ lived to be a witness to the world. As Amy said, "Christians are to live such holy lives that nothing can be lodged against the Gospel because of their example."
Labels: 1 Peter
posted by Jewels @ 6:28 PM
5 Comments:
What really struck me that is that as a Christian, I need to submit to God's will all the time. I need to do what God tells me to do, even when I have no idea what the outcome will be. And, even if I suspect the outcome will be different than what I want the outcome to be, I still need to submit.
The good news is that God's greatest desire is for me to love Him and love others. I can feel confident taking loving action through the power of the Holy Spirit. I can do things out of Christ's love in me, knowing I am honoring God by keeping that command. That way, I don't fret about the outcome. I just do what God asks of me, and then I need to "be still" and know that God is God.
Thanks for bringing up this point Cathy. It summarizes well the attitude of Christ which we are supposed to imitate.
This morning I read Romans 7. In The Message it is subtitled "Torn Between One Way and Another". Considering Sunday's message on Submission, and knowing how I struggle with submitting completely, I thought I ought to read God's Word about being torn one way and another.
Romans 7:14b "What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary."
As I wrote yesterday, God tells us to love Him and love others. Today's devotions reminded me that the world tells us to love our selves. Those dynamics challenge me. I want to follow God's will, and often I can feel the Holy Spirit move me to love others as God calls us to do. BUT...when I am feeling needy myself, or empty, or unloved, it becomes very easy to latch on to the world's ways. Messages of self-sufficiency, hyper independence, self-indulgence, and selfishness abound.
Advertising is a stinker here. To find an illustration for this point I googled "selfish advertisement" and I found the following research at http://www.possibility.com/wiki/index.php?title=IncreasingSelfishBehavior.
It reads "Earlier this year...[we]covered some fascinating research in the area of priming. The concept of priming is simple, although it's also a bit startling: by presenting an individual with subtle cues, one can affect subsequent behavior of that individual, entirely without conscious awareness of either the priming or behavioral changes. Now, as described by Greg Miller of ScienceNow in Money and Me, Me, Me, a study by psychologist Kathleen Vohs shows that supplying subjects with cues related to money can increase selfish behavior." The research also showed that as selfish behaviors increased, people began to prefer to be alone.
Speaking as a woman, I can tell you that women are bombarded with ads about how crazy our lives are because everyone makes demands on our time. Ads make it appear that family members CONSTANTLY make impossible and unreasonable demands (work hard to make money, cook healthy AND delicious meals, play taxi to children and their umpteen activities, keep a spotless house, be put together and alluring for significant others, etc.). Then these same ads subtly hint we have something to be angry about. We are "primed" to think that everyone is out to use us and take advantage of us, and we are "primed" to think we deserve to stop caring about others and start focusing on ourselves.
I agree with the idea that as women it's great to treat ourselves well. What I disagree with is that these ads suggest that we should be angry about our experiences treating others well. The cues we receive are to stop being a loving wife, mother, woman, etc. and to start loving ourselves more.
Applying the research about advertising and how it primes us to think a certain way to the conflict: “God's command to love one another V. World's cues to love ourselves”, it is easy to see how sneaky and effective Satan can be!
If I stop loving others as God commands, and start loving myself as the world suggests, not only will I be unable to be used by God to love others (because I would be focused on myself)...but I would begin isolating myself from the very people God wants me to be in community with. That stops God's work through me, AND separates me from the love of God that comes to me through others.
What does all of this tell me about submission? When I am not sure what to do, or how to act in a challenging situation—and for me, this would be when I am feeling especially needy, I need to dive into the Bible. God’s Word will tell me how to act, what to do, and in what area I need to submit in order to please him.
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”
And yes, once in awhile God will send me to my bubble bath: “As soon as the meal was finished, Jesus insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. Matt. 14:22.
All things considered, the Word is where I will find the wisdom I need to make decisions about the mission of submission.
Cathy,
Wow, thanks for sharing this - I love your conclusion. It's so true that the world, the flesh and the devil leave us feeling full of holes. We try to fill them with things that give us quick satisfacion but it's better to look to God's word and His church because this is what brings peace and wholeness.
I came across this article at work today which gives more insight into what the Bible says about submission and headship in marriage which some of you may find of interest:
Article about Submission
God must really be working on this issue of submission with me. Today I grabbed an old daily devotional off the bookshelf and flipped to April 25, thinking that today is April 25. It’s April 24 but God apparently wanted me to read April 25’s text! Guess what the topic was?! It discusses what happens when people chose to submit to something other than God.
It was based on Mark 4:18,19. "And others are the ones on whom seed were sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enters in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."
That verse sums up what I considered in my devotions yesterday. On a daily basis it is "God's ways v. the world's ways". We all know that God's ways are definitely more powerful than the world's ways. However, because we who live in this world have been given the power to CHOOSE it is up to God's army of believers to submit to God's ways in order to unleash God's good power in our world. Otherwise those nasty thorns, like wild vines, will creep over and choke us, making us weak and unfruitful.
Post a Comment
<< Home