I Peter
2:11-25 (NIV) 12 Live such good lives
among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to
every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority,
14 or to governors, who are sent by
him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good
you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your
freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love
the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
Submission is an underlying theme to
the Christian style of life seen in the New Testament. Submission is the
highest meaning of love. Submission is the secret of patience and hope. It is
the doorway to peace and faith. And submission is probably one of the most
unattractive words in the English language. The root of our English word submit
has the connotation of being forced to comply. The Greek word means “to order
life under.” Submission is the admission of needing some outside help in
structuring life. Submission is subjecting life to the constraints of
discipline so that we may live freely and fruitfully. Submission is as much a
matter of attitude as it is of action. It is inward compliance as well as
outward cooperation. And it is freely chosen. We can force a person to
surrender, but submission is voluntary.
Submission to God, other people, and to
organizations can be difficult, but we are told to submit for the Lord’s sake
as obedience to God. Submission out of fear carries a message, submission with
resentment carries a message, and submission for the Lord’s sake carries a
message - and a power. Submission for the Lord’s sake carries power because it
is a life that has won at least a partial victory over our own inward
tendencies toward both fear and domination. And, we have won at least a partial
victory over our own inner bondage. In submission for the Lord’s sake we find a
kind of focused freedom. Since our submission is a free act of cooperation and
not a forced act of conformity we can still see where the lines of resistance
are drawn. We are better able to distinguish where taking a stand is rooted in
the rich soil of conviction or in the concrete of our stubborn will.
It is from the position of submission
that we are best able to see what the moment calls for us to do. Submission for
the Lord’s sake gives us power. It gives us freedom. And submission carries
with it its own reward. I know the problems of pitfalls of living to please
others or of simply trying to please ourselves. And I know of the burden of
trying to please and always feeling that we have failed. We have been trying to
please the wrong one. The tension between our desire for freedom and the
necessity of conforming to the demands of an imperfect organization or
relationship is relieved by the free decision to submit ourselves for the
Lord’s sake. Our submission gives our lives the flavor of cooperation even in
places of fault and imperfection.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs
Pope May 25, 1986
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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