Submission

We throw around a lot of words and concepts in our Christian language that supposedly have significant meaning, unfortunately, they seldom carry much weight in the reality of how we live our lives. In the midst of a song with a chorus that moves our emotions, we sing passionately about many things that we seem to fully believe, but when the music stops, so does our passion. Or we track along with a sermon that tugs at our heart and we fully embrace the difficult things of faith, until we meet face to face with the difficult things of faith, and suddenly our embrace is more like a fleeting touch.

I know, I know, Christians are hypocrites. We are all hypocrites to some extent. We all fail to live up to what we say we believe at some point. But that has become another one of those things. We acknowledge our hypocrisy, in general terms, but when confronted with specific hypocrisy, we often defend ourselves or rationalize it away as if it doesn't really matter. Our heartfelt admission off general hypocrisy often seems not so meaningful when we defend and/or deny specific hypocrisy in our lives.

Think about submission. Submission is talked about in many places in scripture in a variety of ways. The most popular context for submission, of course, is submission to God. Too often, though, that is where it stops, at least on a practical level. The problem is, on a practical level, it can't stop there, because God talks about submission in other areas of our life. If I truly want to submit to God, then I must submit in all the specific ways he tells me to submit, not just in some general way that only applies to God in some catchy song that I sing.

Romans 13:5-7 

"Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."

1 Peter 2:13-17 

"Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor."

Hmmm...

It would seem that we are commanded to submit to governmental officials who have authority over us, without condition or reference to political affiliation. Not just be polite and nice to them (although that would be a nice first step for many Christians), but to submit to them. All of a sudden the whole idea of submission sounds less desirable. I'm okay submitting to God, but submitting to our president, our governor, to senators, etc., well, that just doesn't go down quite as nicely. But here is the catch - if you are not doing what God has told you to do, then you are not submitting to God either. God says to submit to authorities, so I must submit to governmental authorities in order to submit to God.

That is not an easy one to wrestle with, especially in our freedom loving, my rights are more important than anything else, independent worshipping, American culture. So many Christians perform complex mental gymnastics to rationalize why this doesn't apply to them submitting to Barack Obama (or George Bush, take your pick). In the end, though, our lack of submission is simply an unwillingness to submit to God.  We end up telling God that we will pick and choose our moments of submission, which, honestly, is not submission at all.

This post will be much too long if I highlight all the scripture res dealing with submission, so let me just touch on one more, the one I am really struggling with right now. 

Hebrews 13:17 

"Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you."

In this case the leaders are not political or governmental leaders, but leaders in the church. The concept, though, is the same - submit to their authority. Although most Christians would  likely agree that this is easier than submitting to government officials, real life suggests that it is equally difficult, if not more so. It seems easier, initially, simply because the things Christians are called to submit to from their church leaders are much more likely to be the things we believe we should do anyway. Just like submitting to political leaders, though, it is always easy to submit to things that you agree with. The true test of submission comes when you submit to those things that you don't agree with.

I have no trouble submitting to President Obama when he says we should get a tax break, but when he starts messing with my health insurance, submission gets a little stickier. The same is true in the church. Submitting to church leaders (of the church you choose to attend, by the way) is easy as long as they don't ask you to do something that you don't like. It is at that moment of disagreement, however, (assuming it is not an issue critical to the truth of the gospel), that you, and the leaders, discover the true level of trust and willingness to submit. It has been my experience that those moments of disagreement lead to the same level of submission, both inside and outside of the church, and that is where I am most troubled.

This is not to say that leaders should not be questioned. Leaders should always be held accountable and those following should always be asking questions, even difficult questions and leaders should be prepared to answer. This is not about mindless, blanket, obedience and this is not about leaders always being right. This is not about arguments over critical doctrinal issues, but about those issues of opinion. In such cases. it has been my experience that, more often than not, people would rather leave (or threaten to leave), or withdraw from any participation, when they disagree with leadership, rather than submit. At the risk of sounding like a power-loving, authoritarian, such resistance and defiance seems wrong, given scriptural commands to act differently. 

There are several unpopular commands in the Bible, including various commands on submission. An important element of faith is trusting God enough, to be obedient, even when the command doesn't fit the culture, or our world view, or protect our rights, or even make sense in limited thinking. Being obedient when we don't agree or totally understand is when we demonstrate true submission to authority. When we choose not to submit to authority, we are simply saying that the only ultimate authority worth submitting to is ourselves.