What the Word of God Teaches about Submission and Authority

We are in Ephesians five, talking today about the subject of submission and its connection to authority. Submission and authority are vitally essential truths God established both in heaven and on earth. Much disharmony has come because of a lack of understanding of what it means to voluntarily submit to one another in a spirit of humility and love. Jim Lamb prayed the following prayer and it’s a good lesson in this area. Jim prayed these words: I seem to have not one Master, but hundreds – an army of people streaming through my life, demanding my time, my strength, my mental attention. They all want me to do something for them. But as I listen to a song of our Savior, I begin to understand the true power that comes in submission, even when it is painful: The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame (Isaiah 50:4–7). I hear your song, Lord Jesus. Teach me how to follow your example as a humble servant of all, and yet also be a leader in confidence and strength, just as you were. You are the submissive Lamb of God, without resentment but also the Lion of Judah, courageous and powerful. Teach me these qualities. Help me always to bend willingly, but also to shamelessly take the lead with my face set like flint whenever I must. And thank you for never rebelling or drawing back-earning salvation for us, and endless glory for yourself. That’s quite a prayer. Maybe you can relate to part or all of this. Thank God that Jesus moved into the realm of submission and because He did, he now has ultimate authority. What the Word of God Teaches about Submission and Authority, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life¹. Ephesians 5:21–24 (ESV): 21 — submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Come in line with God’s order for the home life – His order for marriage is the same for the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
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Question: How has your home line changed since you have practiced God’s divine order for the home? Share your story in the comments section below.

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We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Submission and Authority: the Wife’s Role in the Home

Starting with these verses and the ones that follow at the end of chapter five, both the duties of the wife and the husband are addressed.
And why not?
We know that chapters four through six cover practical walk-it-out Christianity.
So, why shouldn’t that discussion finally come to the homelife?
And, with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

A strong nation is made up of strong churches and a strong church is made up of strong families.

So, since one of Paul’s goals as an apostle is to strengthen the brethren, it’s obvious that those discussions would eventually lead to the home.
What does a strong home life look like?
Well, let’s look at it from both sides.
The passage covers the wife’s side.
In an upcoming podcast, we will cover this from the man’s side.

Titus 2:3–5 (ESV): — 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Notice that the teaching the older women are to do reflects what should go on in the home.
Love should go on in the home — young women should love their husbands and their children.
So if there is no love in the home, something is wrong.
That’s the obvious trait — but there are others.
How about self-control?
That should be on display in the home.
What about purity?
How about working hard in the home as opposed to idleness?

Proverbs 31:27 (ESV): — 27 She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

We could say the bread of idleness is the loaf of laziness.
Whatever idiom you use, it is to be rejected by the God-fearing woman.
Godly women are industrious women looking after their households well.
What about kindness?
Shouldn’t that be part of the makeup of a household?
The very walls should drip with it.
Mean-spirited people, male or female, are a curse.

Proverbs 21:9 (ESV): — It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

Turn over a few chapters to Proverbs thirty-one.

Proverbs 31:12 (ESV): — 12 She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

And finally, we have the last trait – submissiveness.
That’s what we are focusing on in this podcast.
Peter says it this way.

1 Peter 3:1 (ESV): — 3 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,

Paul’s message to the Colossians is the same.

Colossians 3:18 (ESV): — 18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Submission and Authority: Definition

So, verse twenty-one starts out with the word submitting.

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

In verse twenty-two, the scripture then goes on to talk about the wife in relation to this commandment – wives submit to their own husbands.
And, with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
The Greek for ‘submitting’ in verse twenty-one means to cause to be in a submissive relationship, to subject, to subordinate²
The New American Standard Bible has ‘submitting’ as to defer to.’
The TNT version says ‘to be ready to give way to.’
Louw Nida states that this verb denotes submission to the orders or directives of another.
To me, BDAG says it best.
It says that the verb indicates submission in the sense of voluntary yielding in love.
That’s good — that’s real good – voluntarily yielding to love.
While we are over here, we might as well cover this.
The scripture here says that wives should submit to their husbands – that wives should voluntarily yield to their husbands in love.
And with that thought, Here is the quote of the Day.

Submission is not subjugation. Subjugation turns a person into a thing, destroys individuality, and removes all liberty. Submission makes a person become more of what God wants him to be; it brings out individuality; it gives him the freedom to accomplish all that God has for his life and ministry.³

That’s a great quote with a great lesson.
Submission is not subjugation.
We need to get this.
Note, that the commandment to submit, that is yield in love, is to the wife — not the husband.
The Word of God did not say, ‘Husbands, make your wives submit.’
Making your wives submit is subjugation.
Some men insist or demand that their wives yield — that’s the wrong spirit.
Now, when it comes to children this is a different story.
Parents should make their children submit — that’s training — that’s raising them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The current culture is wrong — Dead wrong — it’s not OK to let a child do as they wish anytime they wish.

Proverbs 29:15 (ESV) — 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Do you let a child do what they wanna do when they want to do it?
If you do, they will bring shame to the household through their actions.
Children need to be trained — wives need to voluntarily submit in love, these are two different things entirely.
This time of year ‘Home Alone’ is one of the movies that people like to watch.
The way the lead character speaks to his parents is utterly deplorable.
This is not the way to raise children — I don’t care how much money the movie grossed.
Respect and humility are the fundamental building blocks of any successful family — with Jesus in the center that you cannot miss.

Romans 9:33 (ESV) — 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

You cannot go wrong believing in God, trusting his Word, putting it into practice, and ordering your life accordingly.

Submission and Authority: The Place of Humility

The right spirit in any home is a humble spirit.
What makes submission work is humility.
What derails submission is pride – lousy stinking pride.
So then, humility is the foundation of a strong home life.
Saint Ephrem, a Syrian Theologian from the 4th century said the following.

A blossom is the beginning of fruit bearing, and submission the beginning of humility.⁴

Working on the dishes is good, working on controlling your flesh via the love of God out of your spirit is better.
Jesus said it this way.

Matthew 23:25–27 (ESV) — 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

Get what Jesus is saying — He is saying the outside looks beautiful, it’s nice, clean, and pretty — but the inside is messed up.
The Immaculate Son of God is saying that order is important and we need to get it right.
The inside life is first — then comes the outside.
The lawn, the dishes, the clothes, all need to be in order, beautifully clean, and pretty but after the insides are set right.
So, the fruit of the spirit is better than the fruit of the refrigerator.
The spiritual is always higher than the natural.
Let’s say it this way both genders are equal in God’s sight.

Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV) — 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Did you hear it?
Man is ‘them’ not just him.
‘Them’ means male and female.
Male and female did God create in His image.

Galatians 3:28–29 (ESV) — 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Couple this now with this passage in Peter.

1 Peter 3:7 (ESV) — 7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

So, husbands and wives are heirs together equally of the grace of life.
So, God’s tiered order in the home does not imply inequality.
But, for peace’s sake, there are levels of authority in the home.
We could say there is a chain of command.
In First Corinthians, we have the flow of authority laid out for us.

1 Corinthians 11:3–10 (ESV): — 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

So, you have God the Father, and then you have Jesus, the Son.
As far as equality is concerned Jesus in the Father God are one.

John 10:30–33 (ESV) — 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

When the Jews heard Jesus say this, they got super mad.
So mad, they wanted to kill him.

John 5:18 (ESV) — 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus is equal with God but, in terms of authority, the Father is the head over Jesus.

John 5:19–20 (ESV) —19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

Jesus is equal with God but he only does with the Father tells Him to do.
That’s how submission and authority works.
So, you see it working in heaven, and in the ministry of Jesus, so why wouldn’t we think it works that way in the home?
That’s what we read in our main text.

Ephesians 5:23–24 (ESV) — 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

So, Jesus’ submission to the Father God is a wife’s role model for the home.

Submission and Authority: A God Principle for All People

The concept of submission and authority principle is for all cultures.
Just like the Bible is for everyone so are these principles.
You can’t just cherry-pick and choose the scriptures you want to obey.
‘I like this one — no I don’t like that one.
The husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church for all people, for all time.
You can understand this more if you just look at your own personal life and the people that are either over you or under you.
You know that’s so — someone is always over you no matter how high you go.
So, if someone is always over you then you will always be submitting yourself to someone else’s directives — meaning that you will have to exercise humility in these cases.
At the same time, there are always those whom you have authority over and it’s important that you do not lord it over people.
Again, this is an exercise of humility.

James 4:7 (ESV) — 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

This verse in James is a telling versing of this area of submission and authority.
Each believer individually must submit themselves to God.
Notice that comes first then the devil will flee from you — not the other way around.
Devils will not run from you if you operate in pride because pride is the devil’s domain.
Pride is what caused him to fall from heaven in the first place.
So, here we are submitting ourselves to God.

Submission and Authority: In the Church

So, we have the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the church.
Now we go to the local church which is a part of the universal church and there we see our pastor.
In our pastor, there is God-ordained authority in place.
Your pastor hears from God — so our job is once again to submit.
But, the pastor is also one in a chain of authority.
He is one among several.

Ephesians 4:11–13 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

So in the church, we have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
Underneath, the pastor-teacher, there is the ‘helps’ ministry.

1 Corinthians 12:28 (KJV 1900) — 28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

You see there is an order to everything in God.
You see, you will always have opportunities to submit in love with a spirit of humility.

Submission and Authority: Built Into Your Being

Submission and authority are built into your very being.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) — 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Man is spirit, soul, and body.
Within these components of man, you will find the principle of submission and authority.
First, there is your spirit man.
If you have received the life and nature of God, and you have if you said yes to Jesus, then the Holy Spirit indwells your spirit.
So, look at the flow of authority.
The Holy Spirit communicates with your spirit a directive from the Father God.
Now, your spirit knows what needs to be done.
Your mind must submit to what you know in your spirit.
When your spirit gives an order to your soul, it should’ve been immediately.
This comes from training and working in these areas.
Where does this directive go next?
Your soul now has it — your soul sends a commandment to your body saying ‘let’s get going.’
At every link in this chain, humility is required.
The soul must humble itself to the directive in your spirit.
Your body must humble itself to the dictates of the soul.
This only works if the mind is renewed with the word of God.
An unrenewed mind is a terrible thing.
Will you allow your mind to talk you out of what you have in your spirit?
Are you going to allow your body to be insubordinate?
All of these are breaks in the chain.
So, you see the principle of submission to authority is baked into the human experience at every level.

Submission and Authority: Tiers in the Home

So, the husband/father is the head of the wife.
The wife/mother is the head of the child.
But, among children, there can be tiers of authority.

1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) — 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Now, the context here is ministry.
Peter is talking about church leadership.
But, in the early church, the first pastors were older people.
That’s they called them elders.
It takes time for ministry gifts to develop.
Novices or those newly come to the faith do not qualify to hold five-fold ministry offices.

1 Timothy 3:1–6 (KJV 1900) — 1 This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; 4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

The Greek word novice means newly converted — in other words, one who just got saved.
Everybody in the early church was a new convert.
On the day of Pentecost 3000 people got saved.
Who was going to pastor them and develop them in the things of God?
The early church picked older people and that’s where the term elders came from.
At any rate, it’s thoroughly scriptural for the younger to submit to the older.
In the home, it’s right for an older child to have limited authority over a young earth sibling.
Now, I’m talking about a responsible 14-year-old having limited authority over a three-year-old.
I am not talking about a 14-year-old having authority over an 11-year-old.
Those ages are too close together.

So Father in the Name of Jesus, thank you for helping us to day to flow in God-ordained authority. Thank you for stirring us to operate in humility in our everyday lives. If we have missed it in any of these areas, forgive us and cleanse us by your great power and stretched out arm. We give you all the praise and glory and honor for this in Jesus Name, Amen.

What the Word of God Teaches about Submission and Authority, you guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

#S4-034: Why You Can Absolutely Expect Powerful Healing Moves of God [Podcast]

__________
References:

Discipleship Journal, Issue 8 (March/April 1982) (NavPress, 1982) ↩
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1042. ↩
Warren Wiersbe, Craig Brian Larson and Brian Lowery, 1001 Quotations That Connect: Timeless Wisdom for Preaching, Teaching, and Writing (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2009), 312. ↩
Craig Brian Larson and Brian Lowery, 1001 Quotations That Connect: Timeless Wisdom for Preaching, Teaching, and Writing (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2009), 128. ↩

emeryhorvath.com

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What the Word of God Teaches about Submission and Authority

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode One

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Submission and Authority: the Wife’s Role in the Home

Submission and Authority: Definition

Submission and Authority: The Place of Humility

Submission and Authority: A God Principle for All People

Submission and Authority: In the Church

Submission and Authority: Built Into Your Being

Submission and Authority: Tiers in the Home

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Submission and Authority: the Wife’s Role in the Home

Submission and Authority: Definition

Submission and Authority: The Place of Humility

Submission and Authority: A God Principle for All People

Submission and Authority: In the Church

Submission and Authority: Built Into Your Being

Submission and Authority: Tiers in the Home

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