Submit to one another
Laurence Singlehurst 7th Jan 07
Ephesians 5 v 21-27
Look at Eph 5 v 1 ‘live a life of love as Christ loved us’
What is our confidence in?
The start of a new year is a time to ask what do I believe in, what do we put our confidence in. Have confidence in God's love for us, and his love is us for people. God wants the love in our hearts to touch two groups of people, he wants people to know they are loved and wants to draw them back to himself through us. When we meet people and friends, pray that they will somehow connect with the love of God in our hearts, even if we don't talk about Jesus. Have confidence that as individuals as we meet with people and friends that they will meet with God in us.
Also have confidence that we will encounter God in our small groups, and those who connect with our groups with meet with God through it/us.
Have confidence that the presence of God is in our church and can impact people.
One group of people God wants to reach is those who have become disconnected from the body, the church. The church should be a place where those find love again. We're not perfect but we can show he love of Christ. Have confidence that God wants to use us.
The other group is people who are outside the love of God, our friends who do not know God. Have confidence that they will experience the love of God through our friendships with them.
God wants us to have a new confidence as a church, a confidence about love.
Now to Ephesians 5 v 21-27
We don't have to agree with Laurence, it's just his opinion, but let’s reflect on the passage and share our thoughts with each other.
The context of love
What is this chapter really talking about – love. This is the context. It contains some difficult metaphors.
When passages appear to deal with submission, position and hierarchy, we need to also look at the radical message of the early church. The Roman system was very stratified, fixed and authoritarian. Each person had their place. The impact of the church was that it broke down those barriers and allowed slaves and Roman citizens to fraternise. Created a fellowship which was not position based but love based, all were equal under the authority of Christ. Broke up the stratified approach and created something new and dynamic.
Whenever the church breaks loose it will always break down such systems and create a new society.
In Wesley’s day the positions of peasants and landowners was also fixed, it was even reinforced by some Christian theology from people who said everything should be in its place. Wesley let loose into society the essence of the message which is that nothing is fixed, it's about love, about equality under God.
Therefore approach with caution any passage of scripture which seems to be about position. Like this one!
We can’t dilute the word 'submit', which in the Greek means in the military sense of one rank being subject to the higher rank. However it says submit to one another – so we all respect one another, it's about equality and mutual respect. We all have giftings and experiences, respect and learn from one another.
Those whose gifting puts them in positions of authority should not close themselves off to input from others. And others respect them because of their giftings and person rather that the actual position.
In marriage the husband & wife need to discover each others strengths and giftings. One may be better with handling the money, and one better at arranging the furniture.
Submitting to another means holding yourself back. We often have subconscious positional views which we need to give up.
Permission-based authority
The passage has the metaphor of Christ being the head of the church as husbands are the head of the wife. Is this a positional authority thing? Does Christ tell the church what to do?
Rom 6 v 16. We are slaves to the one we obey. The devil only has the power we give him. Jesus only has the power we surrender to him, it is permission based not position based.
God does not rule through position based power, he only comes into our lives as we give him permission to.
In marriage the power is based on permission and mutual respect. Our responsibility is to pray & care & love.
V 24 how does the church submit. By permission.
V 25 how did Christ love the church, not by power, but by sacrificing himself. The leader is the example of loving. It’s not about position but about love.
On the occasions we do have to exercise authority we do it out of love and permission.
Summary
This passage is about love, respect, learning from one another. This breaks down the secular worldly position based system, creates something much more fluid. We want to see a huge amount of love break down the strata which remain in our society, we can do that as we show love for each other and others.
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