Should I submit to anyone other than the Lord? - Submission - TouchPoints

Ephesians 5:21-22Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

1 Peter 5:5In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

We should submit to those in authority over us as long as they do not ask us to disobey the commands of God.

Ephesians 5:21-33Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Husbands and wives should submit to each other. This passage considered as a whole, rather than selected parts, equates love and submission. Christ submitted to death out of love for the church, for us. The wife’s practical question is “How am I submitting to my husband as the church submits to Christ?” The husband’s practical question is, “How am I willing to die for my wife as Christ died for the church?” Love always includes submission, and these challenges for husbands and wives are difficult for anyone to fulfill.

Ephesians 6:1Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do.

Children should submit to their parents, particularly as they grow to understand that God gave them those particular parents.

Ephesians 6:4Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.

Christian parents should submit to Christ in the way they raise their children.

Ephesians 6:5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.

Employees should submit to their employers, while maintaining an even deeper allegiance to Christ.

Ephesians 6:9Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.

Christian employers should submit to Christ in supervising their employees.

Romans 13:1-2Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.

We should submit to the government that God has placed in authority over us, as long as that government doesn’t require us to reject God’s authority.