Sunday, June 8, 2008
Submit to me? Ouch!
The past few weeks, I've been visiting with different friends about the topic of subordination within the hierarchy of the Kingdom of God. Not one of those topics you hear a lot about on sports radio, granted. But definitely something I've been wrestling with.
How far and to whom does God call you to be subordinate (or submissive)? And are there qualifiers regarding their level of competence, before you submit to their authority?
Does God call you to be submissive to your parents - even when you're a grown up? Your elders at church? Your boss? Your in-laws? What about difficult people who have authority over you? And what if any of these people are fools (Proverbs 13:20)? To them too?
Bruce Waltke addresses this topic in his study, "The Book of Proverbs." Waltke takes an in- depth look at parents' responsibility (particularly fathers) to admonish and teach their children the ways of the wise. He also instructs children to listen, and to live out, the wisdom their parents are instructing.
One of the things he talks about regarding this subject is God's hierarchy of authority. In particular, how parents stand in authority as God's representatives in the lives of their children. He goes on to give a scriptural backdrop as to how structure in the kingdom is to be:
In the new Israel, Jesus Christ subordinates himself to God the Father (1 Cor. 11:3); the elders and the church to the apostles - who liken themselves to fathers - by the command of God the Father and of the Son (1 Cor. 4:15, 1 Tim. 1:2, Tit. 1:4, 1 John 5:21); the parents and the church at large to the leaders (Eph. 6:2, Heb. 13:17); the wife to her husband (1 Cor. 11:3, Eph 5:22-24, Col. 3:18, 1 Tim. 2:11-12); and the children to both parents (Eph. 6:1, Col. 3:20, 1 Tim. 5:4).
Did you follow the structure? Can you see it on the chart in your head?
Jesus to God.
Elders to Apostles.
Church at Large to the Leaders of the Church.
Wife to Husband.
Children to Parents.
As I study the proverbs, I find myself wearing two hats. First, I wear the hat as a father who is responsible for teaching my children to honor and submit to Kristin and me. And secondly, I read them as a son who is responsible to submit to my parents, our church leaders and all other authorities – as God ordained for my life.
So what do you do when someone whom God has placed in authority over you (in the hierarchy listed above) makes it difficult to follow? What if you believe your ways are better thought- through than their ways? Do you still submit?
Luther had a great example in his larger catechism as he discussed our Lord's commandment to honor your father and mother. He writes:
We must, therefore impress it upon the young that they should regard their parents as in God's stead, and remember that however lowly, poor, frail, and queer they may be, nevertheless they are father and mother given them by God. They are not to be deprived of their honor because of their conduct or their failings. Therefore we are not to regard their persons, how they may be, but the will of God who has thus created and ordained. In other respects we are indeed, all alike in the eyes of God; but among us there must necessarily be such inequality and ordered difference, and therefore God commands it to be observed, that you obey me as your father, and that I have the supremacy.
So as difficult as it may be, I find myself believing more and more that God calls me to be subordinate to everyone He has placed in authority over me. And perhaps, for my sanctification, especially those who make it difficult. For as Luther states, it's not in conduct that our parents are to be honored, but out of the will that God has ordained that they should be our parents!
And now I find myself wrestling more and more, not to whom I should or shouldn't submit. But I think of my own conduct, in the lives of my wife and children, and I pray that God helps me become a man that makes it easier for them to submit to, and to follow, instead of making it more difficult.
The thought that I stand in God's stead in their lives frightens and humbles me. And to think that God expects them to submit to me – in all my decisions, in my leadings (regardless of my mis-leadings) – out of duty and honor to Him, is sobering.
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