This is one of the hardest subjects of Christianity.  Humans don’t want to submit to anything unless we have to.  Our modern culture tells us how important our viewpoint is and how much we need to speak out.  We are regularly reminded of how many men have given their lives for our freedom.

But God tells us to submit.  We are no longer the ones in charge of our lives.  God is. But if we stopped there, we could claim that we were submitting while in fact we could be doing exactly what we wanted anyway, but giving it a spiritual description to explain it.  “I’m fully submitted to God.  He wanted me to have this [thing/place/job I really wanted].”

So God calls us to submit to other humans.  We may have ideas, dreams, desires, but God has also placed people over us… not necessarily because they are the best or right, but because the act of submitting our will to them strengthens our submission to Christ.

The act of submitting our will to them [other people] strengthens our submission to Christ.

In fact, I wonder if that isn’t the reason the Bible and Jesus doesn’t speak out against slavery.  That is the ultimate form of submission, and I suspect there will be a disproportionate number of slaves in Heaven because they more easily gave up control of their lives to God.

In his letters, Paul constantly used the language of being a bond-servant to Christ.. that’s a slave by choice that had part of his earlobe removed to signify he would always be a slave by choice.

But the problem is that my flesh still wants what it wants. It agrees with my culture about the importance of my freedom and my thoughts. And most of all, it doesn’t want to submit in any way to anything. “Indulge, indulge, indulge,” it screams. “You deserve it. You’ve already submitted so much.”

So the question is… will my flesh win or will I deny myself and submit? Only time will tell.  But I must submit.

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