Submit to One Another - Out of Reverence for Christ

Ephesians 5:21

And further, you will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. ^[1]

One of the classic Christian texts of the modern world is C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I’d like to share with you a short passage from the start of Chapter 7 of Book III as we begin today’s post:

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war[2]. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. "That sort of talk makes them sick," they say. And half of you already want to ask me, "I wonder how you'd feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?"

So do I; I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do – I can do precious little – I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it.

This is rather how I feel about this post, especially that last sentiment. Paul says a lot of really hard things, both in this verse and in the passage that this verse introduces, and I find myself wanting to make sure everyone reading knows that it’s not my fault! We’ve been working our way through the book of Ephesians in these posts, and now, right there in the middle of chapter 5, Paul starts talking about submission. So, for those of you who have a negative reaction to the topic of submission, I want to be clear that, in these posts, I’m just telling you what Paul has said; I didn’t make this stuff up!

Because submission is, of course, a really popular subject, isn’t it. Just take a moment and think back about all of the great sermons you’ve heard preached about submission in the past. Take your time; I’ll wait.

Did anyone come up with anything there? Have any of you even heard any sermons on submission? I suspect most of you, like me, have not. I mean, generally all you have to do is mention the word and people start to get uncomfortable. This is so universally true that I seriously considered changing the title of this post, because I suspect seeing that word in the title will make some people simply skip reading this entirely! People just don’t like to talk about, or even think about, submission!

There are several reasons for this, but I think the primary reason is because of the word’s connotations. We associate very negative emotions with this word. The thesaurus lists several synonyms for it: capitulation, appeasement, docility, cringing, servility, subjection[3].

That’s exactly how we want people to think of us, right? No, of course not! All of those words feel very negative to us; no one wants to be described as subjected or servile. And all of these negative connotations are lumped together in the word submission.

So when people talk about submission, or even worse, when we read about it in Scripture, it kind of leaves a bad taste in our mouths. Because, of course, the Bible does little to improve our natural impression of this word! Many of the passages of Scripture where submission is discussed have most of these negative impressions wrapped up in them. It seems to me that most people, pastors included, just choose not to think about submission very much. We know it has something to do with obedience. We know the Bible is in favor of it, so its something we have to agree with, or at least pretend to agree with when we have to talk about it at all. But I think most of us don’t really go much further than that. Because, at bottom, we know that the Bible has a lot to say about submission that we don’t particularly want to hear; it is easier to just ignore it as much as we can.

That attitude is a bit problematic when you come to a passage like this one. Just as Paul frames the first half of Ephesians 5 with the idea of imitating God, so he frames the second half of this chapter, along with the beginning of chapter 6, with this idea of submission. And he introduces it all with this verse: submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Then he devotes the rest of this section to examining how this concept of submission plays out in specific relationships within our lives: between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between slaves[4] and masters.

But all of these are simply variations, specific examples of the overarching principle Paul lays out in verse 21: as believers, we should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The problem is, of course, that if we choose not to think much about submission, then chances are most of us don’t really understand what it means clearly enough to make sense of what Paul is commanding here. So, before we go any further, I think it would be wise to spend some time looking more specifically at the two main concepts that Paul sets out in verse 21: submission and reverence for Christ.

What Does it Mean to Submit?

First, let’s look at what it means to submit. The easiest way to approach this would be to check the dictionary, which, in this case, tells us that submission means, “to give over or yield to the power or authority of another.”[5] Unfortunately, I think we all already knew that much, so that doesn’t really help.

The next place I searched was to see what kinds of words were used for this concept throughout Scripture. And there, I made some interesting discoveries. Though first, I have to reiterate what I have said many times in these posts: I am not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, so the conclusions I’ve come to on this topic may be way off! But based on the resources I have available to me, this is what I found to be true.

First, in Hebrew there is basically one word for the concept we are discussing here, which is anah. This word has a wealth of meanings; it is a very rich word. For example, it is used in a passage in Leviticus where God commands His people to fast during certain festivals[6]. In the NIV, the command is translated deny yourselves, while the King James put it afflict your souls. In fact, Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary lists at least 15 separate ideas connected to this word, and many of the concepts are opposites. It can mean browbeating someone or abasing yourself. It can mean showing gentleness or ravishing someone (which, in this context, I’m pretty sure refers to rape).

The point that I think is relevant to the idea of submission is that almost half of the meanings listed are reflexive. They deal, in other words, with actions done to ourselves. Let me list a few examples of these: to abase oneself, to humble oneself, to afflict oneself, to chasten (or criticize) oneself. Do you notice the pattern forming here? I’m not, of course, thinking of the obvious fact that these are all fairly negative words to our modern ears, but rather this. When this word is used reflexively, to talk about ourselves, it always involves relinquishing something. It could be our dignity (through abasement) or our pride (through humility) or our comfort (through self-imposed affliction) or our sense of righteousness (through personal chastisement of our own sins).

So, I think one basic element of the word submission, in the sense that it is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, is that submission requires us to willingly give up something that we normally would consider ours by right.

In Greek, the situation is a little different. There are many words for the concept of obedience; in a quick search I came up with about ten, and each of those had many variations. So there are a whole bunch of ways to talk about this concept in Greek, but only two of them seem to apply here. The first, which is not the word Paul uses in this passage, is paradidomi, which simply means “to surrender.” The word Paul does use here is hupotasso, which has about six related meanings. These can all be summed up as, “to obey, or be subject to.” The interesting thing about this word, to me at least, is that all of its various meanings are reflexive; this word can only be used to refer to yourself.

So, according to the Greek, we can also add this to our understanding of submission: submission means willing obedience.

Why We Submit

You may wonder why I take so much time and space to establish these two separate ideas connected to submission. The reason is this. Any time submission is mentioned in Scripture, it is always defined in terms of a relationship. Just look at the passage in front of us. Paul doesn’t say, “Ephesians, you must submit!” Instead, he says submit to one another.

Obviously, submission entails one person submitting and another person being submitted to. However, in the Scriptural ideal, the act of submission created obligations for both sides of the relationship, and it is in those different obligations that the different senses of the Hebrew and Greek words come into play.

Now, I freely admit that this is something of a stretch. Paul used the Greek word, so it is entirely possible that I have no logical justification for bringing the Hebrew understanding of it into this discussion. But in my own defense, I would point out that Paul lived in a world that was profoundly multilingual, in both a personal and a political sense. He was raised and educated in the Hebrew tradition and undoubtedly knew Hebrew very well; you could make a case that Hebrew was his mother tongue. But he also spoke and understood Greek quite fluently, as any educated man of his time had to. So I don’t think it too unreasonable to assume that he had both the Greek and the Hebrew ideas of submission in mind when he wrote this letter. This seems especially true when you consider how he applies the term. Those he calls to submit (wives, children, slaves) are commanded to willingly obey, while those they are called to submit to (husbands, parents, masters) are commanded to sacrifice for the sake of the one submitting to them. And in the next several posts, as we go through the specific sections of this epistle that follow, I hope we will see more clearly how Paul’s application of the word “submission” incorporates both of these ideas.

In other words, if you’re not buying this connection, just stay with me for a while, and hopefully it will become more evident as we look more deeply into this passage over the course of my next several posts.

But there is one final idea connected to the word submission, at least as Paul applies it in this passage, that I want to point out. This is that submission, or the command to submit, is always justified with some kind of explanation. In every case in this passage, Paul gives reasons why we should submit. The first example is here in verse 21: we are called to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Now, I would certainly not suggest that this is an absolute. Ultimately, submission is an act of faith, and nowhere in Scripture is our obedience to God’s commands predicated on our understanding of those commands. God is not required to explain Himself to us, and we are required to submit even if He doesn’t.

But I think it is also important to recognize that God frequently does choose to explain. He often gives us a reason why we ought to submit. Now that doesn’t mean we’ll always like or accept or even understand the reason. Sometimes, as with children in chapter 6, the reason is simply for this is right. But, at least in connection with the submission Paul outlines in this passage, there is always a “because….”

And I think the reason for this is that God wants us to know Him. He wants us to understand His character, and He shares something of that character with us as He explains why He requires some of the things that He requires. Those of us who are parents can probably relate to this idea. When they were still young and I would ask something of my children, particularly if it was something difficult, I would often explain why I was asking it of them. I frequently do the same thing with the students in my classes; if I’m asking them to do something that is difficult, or to obey a rule that I know they will find onerous, I try to explain why I am requiring it of them. Not always, of course. Where my children were concerned, I worked hard to drill into them the idea that they were always expected to obey me and their mother, with or without an explanation. But I never wanted them, or my students, to see me as a dictatorial ogre who uses them as slaves to make his own life easier, or who commands difficult things on a whim, for no good reason. I wanted them to know that I love them and that I ask things of them for their training and upbringing; in other words, for their own benefit. And so, sometimes I take the time to explain why I am asking things of them (often at much greater length than they were interested in listening to, but that is beside the point!).

I think that is what God wants as well. He wants us to know He is not just arbitrarily making up rules to make our lives more difficult and void of pleasure. Some people (perhaps even some of you reading this today) genuinely believe that of Him. So sometimes, He takes the time to explain why He wants us to do what He asks of us, as He does through Paul in this passage.

Out of Reverence for Christ

This is why I think it worthwhile to spend a little bit of time looking at the explanation Paul gives in verse 21, which is the introduction to this entire section on submission. This is the overarching explanation, the ultimate reason behind all submission: submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

What does it mean to have reverence for Christ? The Greek word Paul uses here is phobos, which literally means “fear.” Likely this is why several other versions, such as the King James, translate this phrase as in the fear of God.

I suspect that for many of you, especially those of you who have been in the church or in the Word for a long time, this is not a new concept. Throughout the Old Testament, various prophets enjoined God’s people to fear the Lord, which meant that they were to show respect and reverence for God, remembering Who He is and who they were in comparison and acting accordingly. Or, as Adam Clarke puts it, “The fear of the Lord signifies that religious reverence which every intelligent being owes to his Creator.”[7]

So what this phrase means isn’t really much of a problem, I don’t think, at least for many of us. We understand what it means when Scripture says we should fear the Lord. But what does this have to do with submission? How is my living in reverence to Christ, in the fear of the Lord, a justification for submitting to other believers?

Actually, it makes perfect sense when you think about it (maybe some of you didn’t even have to think about it as long as I did…). Fearing the Lord means recognizing my true position and my true worth in comparison to Him, knowing who I am, and what He has done for me in calling me out of my sin and making me His child. When I am deeply aware of what a debtor I am to His grace, how can I possibly seek to put myself above others? Or, to look at it another way, part of reverencing Christ, fearing Him, means recognizing the incredible sacrifice He made to make me His child. That means I must be worth a great deal to Him. And that would hold true for everyone that He has called into His Kingdom as sons and daughters! So how can I look on one whom Jesus valued as worth His own life and place myself above them?

When a group of people come together who are genuinely fearing the Lord in the way Paul means in this passage, the only possible response is for them to seek submission. Or, to put it in the words of Philippians 2, they would naturally be moved to consider each other as more important than yourself.[8] William Barclay expresses this concept very well. He says that such people “[see] each other not in the light of their professions or social standing, but in the light of Christ; and therefore they [see] the dignity of all men.”[9]

Final Thoughts

Now, I recognize that this post has come dangerously close to a rather long-winded vocabulary lesson. I intended it to be an introduction into the frame of this passage, to help us all become a little more familiar with the ideas that Paul is going to elaborate on in the rest of the passage. The hope is that, in the weeks to come as we walk through the verses that follow (assuming you stick with me for the next several posts!), these ideas will become a little clearer.

But I hope it has been more than just an introduction. To me, this verse communicates a deeply profound truth. I see Paul, in this verse, giving us the secret to mastering the second of Christ’s two great commandments: Love your neighbor as yourself.[10] We should seek to view all those we meet in the light of Jesus, as souls of infinite value, redeemed at great cost, or as fallen sinners whose depth of depravity is no greater than my own. When we fully recognize that we are standing in the presence of the children of God, the well-beloved Bride of Christ who was bought with a terrible price, then I believe we will be well on our way to treating others as Jesus commands us to: genuinely putting others first and loving those around us as we love ourselves.

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^[1]Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 1997, c1996 (electronic ed.) (Eph 5:21). Wheaton: Tyndale House.

[2] World War II (my note)

[3] Submission. www.thesaurus.com

[4] The “politically correct” word for this concept is “employees,” though that isn’t the word that Paul uses; more on that in a later post!

[5] Submit. www.dictionary.com

[6] Leviticus 16:29

[7] Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Ephesians 5, accessed electronically in the PowerBible CD program.

[8] Philippians 2:3, NIV

[9] Barclay, William. “The Christian Fellowship - Ephesians 5:15-21.” Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal, https://bibleportal.com/commentary/section/william-barclay/the-christian-fellowship-ephesians-515-21-8304.

[10] Matthew 22: 36 – 40