Is Submission Out-Moded?

MOST if not all of us have at one time or another had the experience of driving down a country road and approaching a very narrow, one-lane bridge. Almost always in front of the bridge you will encounter a posted sign that says "YIELD." The sign causes you to slow down or even stop if another vehicle is in sight. The purpose of the sign is not to hinder your journey or suggest other drivers / vehicles are more important or superior to you; the purpose is to prevent an accident and possible injury and / or property damage. We ignore the sign to our own possible detriment. The thing is if you cross the bridge slowly and safely, when you look back (or possibly travel back later), you will almost always see another sign that says "YIELD" on the other end of the bridge! Drivers from both sides are asked to yield the right-of-way. It is a common-sense and simple way of preventing a head- on crash. And all it requires is some grace and humility on the part of each driver!

The Bible often commands Christians to yield to one another. All Christians are directed to be "submitting to one another in the fear of God." (Ephesians 5:21). The next verse tells Christian wives, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord." That verse is not teaching that women are inferior to their husbands or that the husband is somehow better or occupies a position of imperial- like authority to treat her like a piece of property or personal slave. On the contrary, a few verses later in Ephesians 5 husbands are commanded to "love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her ... husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies ... nourish and cherish them" (verses 25, 28, 29). In Ephesians 6:1 children are taught to submit as they "obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." In 1 Peter 5:5 younger people are admonished by the Holy Spirit to "submit yourselves to your elders" – and then Peter goes onto say, "Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility." In speaking about our duty to those who govern us, all Christians are to "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake" (1 Peter 2:13). First century servants / slaves who had become Christians were directed to "be submissive to your own masters with fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh" – and Peter goes on to say such behavior is "commendable before God" (1 Peter 2:18-20). One more passage at 1 Timothy 2:11-12 is of special note, and has come to be especially controversial – "Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence." Conservative Bible commentators agree this passage applies to corporate worship assemblies of the church when men and women are present. Now all kinds of fancy arguments are being advanced to free Christian women to teach / preach in worship services. But as author F. Lagard Smith wrote, "If this seems outmoded for women at the end of the 20^th (now 21^st!) century, one must ask whether God has changed His mind along with changing times" (Men of Strength For Women of God, p 255). The apostle Paul explains in 1 Timothy 2:13-14 why this submission is not outmoded. The need for submission to God’s word will never be outmoded!

 – Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN