Theology

Why Submit to Authority?

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Submission is a role taken for ordered benefit.

submission

Each person in The Trinity fulfills a role, working for a common goal, setting the standard for mutual submission (for example, in salvation, Eph 1:3-14). Goals indicate an order; order necessitates authority. Submission assumes an authority. Humans have been given both authority to rule and authorities to rule them.

Biblical Theology of Submission

submission3God created creation with authority; light was given to govern, order, and define time (Gen 1:14-19). “Subdue and have domination” before sin (Gen. 1:28) indicated ordered, beneficent human conservation and management, production from and protection of creation (Gen 2:5, 8, 15). By naming the animals (Gen 2:19) humans were following The Creator’s lead (Genesis 1:5, 8, 10).  Adam had been given jurisdiction over the creation with a directive to rule.  “Naming” required direct, relational rule: time spent to learn the nature of the thing being studied. Naming displayed classification rules: the basis for describing language, art, or science.

Coercion (Num. 32:22, 29) and slavery (Jer. 34:11, 16) corrupted order and rule after sin (Gen 3:17-19). Pollution and unwise resource usage suggest that at times human selfishness and manipulation of power pervert the intention of creation from “use” into “abuse” (2 Chr 36:20-21; compare Ho 2:8 with 9:16). God’s active intervention for redemption is necessary: “He will subdue our iniquities” (Mic 7:10).

Jesus’ submission was required to subdue sin (Ph 2:5-8; Heb 9: 26). Jesus’ sacrifice was submission to His role (Matt 26:39, 42). Submission is a role taken for ordered benefit: Jesus reinstitutes the original intention for humanity’s rule (Gen 1:28; Ps 8:5; Eph 1:22). Because of God’s creational order, government is given for human good (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-17), men bear first responsibility at home (Eph 5:22-25; 1 Pe 3:1-7), and younger should be subject to those older (1 Pet 5:5). Submission was expected to be given to those who had become servants to The Church (1 Co 16:16). Mutual submission, each person to another, was charged (Eph 5:21). Ultimately, any person who placed themselves under the authority of another was obeying God (1 Pe 1:2, 14, 22). Proper submission is fulfilled in relationship with others who all live under God’s ordained order, albeit, in a broken world (1 Pe 3:8-12).

Biblical Philosophy of Submission

submission2Living under order indicates there is a need for organizational structure in local church polity. Paul left Titus in Crete (1:5) to “straighten out what was left unfinished” by “appointing elders” with clear “direction.” The first injunction was to put in order something in addition to what Paul had begun. Elders were to be set down, established, arranged not in the sense of ordination but of authoritative election (Acts 14:23) and planned selection (Acts 20:13).

The work of The Church should be collaborative as it is found in the recurrent phrase “fellow worker.” Over and over again the concept of operating in tandem, partnership, working together, co-submission, accountability, and shared vision was key in “the work” where status was not the point (1 Co 16:3-4, 12, 15-18, 21; 2 Co 8:16-24; Eph 6:21-22; Col 4:7-17; 1 Thess 2:17-3:10; 3 Jn 8). Cooperation was crucial in confederation with fellow mates (the way the term was utilized in the currency of the day).  Epaphras, for example, has an undesignated responsibility but is “vouched for” by Paul who adds the man “is working hard” for the Colossians (4:12-13). The New Testament suggests clear order with interrelated responsibilities.  Commitment to the common goals and tasks of doing “everything you can to help” with the general command that “our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good” (Titus 3:13-14).

Christian Practice of Submission

submission1Since humans are given jurisdiction of this world by God, exercise of management may require active force.  Students will need to memorize spelling words, syntactical rules will be enforced on essays, incomplete assignments will be penalized, clear directions will give latitude and a means of evaluation, mathematical processes will be unqualified, and scientific equations will maintain consistent outcomes.  In short, expectation and compliance to order will be mandated throughout the educational process.  Teachers and students have responsibility to “subdue” their subjects.  “Ruling” instructional disciplines—bringing them under active human control—is God’s intention.

Christians should live in submission to authorities God has established.  Leaders should be respected (1 The 5:11-12; Heb 13:17). Others should be honored (1 Co 16:15-18; Col 4:7-15). Since human time is “in God’s hands” (Ps 31:15), time should be stewarded as opportunity (Eph 5:16) because of its brevity (Ps 90:12; Jas 4:14-17), and one’s inability to see tomorrow (Pro 27:1). Since everything belongs to God (Lev 25:23; Ps 24:1) property should be used for others’ benefit (Acts 2:44; 4:32-37). Christians reclaim the need to prudently manage and conserve everything—time, money, possessions, abilities—because they are responsible to rule.  Christians also acknowledge that they obey Heaven’s authority and authorities given by Heaven to earth.

“Submission” © is one of 17 articles included in The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, Rowman & Littlefield, April, 2015 by Dr. Mark Eckel.

Other Helps

Gene A. Getz, Building Up One Another, 3rd ed., (Colorado Springs, David C. Cook, 2002).

Thomas S. Jones and Steve Brown, Transformational Relationships in the Body of Christ, (Spring Hill, TN, DPI Books, 2008).

Picture credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_washing, Snappy Goat

Why Do Good?

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Our problems originate inside.

inside-out-1

Our hope originates from outside.

 

Over the last three days I have posted these statements on social media:

“Racism” is not the direct result of history, nationality, ethnicity, nor privilege. Racism is the direct result of sin in our hearts.

“Greed” is not a result of big business, banking institutions, capitalism, or economic class. Greed begins in every human heart.

“Hate” does not originate in ethnicity, nationality, political persuasion, or economic class. Hate originates in every human heart.

inside-out5My focus is the same: human problems begin with our sinful selves.

Some evangelicals believe correction for our problems begins “outside” (my biology, environment, psychology, privilege, etc). But if that is true, then we will subscribe to the source of fixing problems through external intervention (government, law, policy).

The only true change against privilege, negative home situations, or psychological dispositions is the saving grace of Jesus. The gospel changes our “hearts” then motivates us to “do good” (Titus 2.11-14 leads right into Titus 3.1, 8, 14).

inside-out6If we begin by believing that “doing good” is our first response to sin then our view of salvation begins with us rather than with the redemption we need found only in Christ.

If “doing good” has solely a human origin then humans get to define “the good.” Motivation of “doing” belongs to the individual. What is “good” for me may not be “good” for you.

inside-out7But if “doing good” is a focus on others because of Another, then the origin of and motivation for “good” is prompted by Someone who is Good. “Good” now has a standard.

Only the exclusivity of the gospel allows for the inclusivity of help. If we don’t have the first, then the second is up to the whim of the individual or institution. [See my essay on exclusivity – inclusivity.]

inside-out8Some Christians want to pawn-off policy issues with trite bumper-sticker theology. But if we do not have a biblical foundation for government, law, policy, etc. then biblical truths will not permeate the culture. 

My students have heard me say this for decades: “My environment – biology – psychology may accentuate my behavior but it is not the root cause of it” (Mark 7.21-23).

I agree with my friend Stacey “certain outward forces or institutions perpetuate, promote, and propel the indifference of the human heart.”

If you would like my pictorial overview of a cultural – versus – Christian viewpoint concerning sin, salvation, and service, click this link: christian-versus-cultural-views-of-sin-salv-serv

inside-out-1Another of my many mantras classes have seen goes like this, “The problem is not out there (I point to things around me) but in here (I point to my chest).”

True change, lasting change, eternal change has a Source outside us which changes us inside.

Mark, like the rest of the human race, has many internal struggles. But Mark also knows that the human race will be saved not by themselves but through the sacrifice of Jesus. Click the link for The Comenius Institute to see some of Dr. Mark Eckel’s activities.

Hope: We Can’t Live Without It

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Looking upward, in expectation.

It was midnight when she called.  I heard the crashing of Lake Michigan waves mixed with Chelsea’s emotions smashing against the shoreline.  My daughter recounted a conversation she had had with a young atheist, for whom her heart ached.  She cried explaining the fellow classmate’s desire for something or someone to meet his expectation.  For all her college years Chelsea referred to herself as a “female Apollos” using the “apologetic of hope” with her peers.  My daughter knows hope, lives hope, and gives hope to others.

In her Mystery and Manners, a writer’s self-description, Flannery O’Connor explains the core of any good story, storyteller, and story-reader:

“…people without hope do not write novels…I’m always highly irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality.  It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system.  If the novelist is not sustained by a hope of money, then he must be sustained by a hope of salvation, or he simply won’t survive the ordeal.  People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them.”[1]

Simply said, reality demands hope in a supernatural world.  “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” for example, causes one to gasp aloud in response to the depth of human sin and the necessity of divine grace.  Hope to overcome the first is impossible without the second.

Hope is at the core of reflection.  The Old Testament words for “hope” mean to look forward to with eager expectation.[2] Often translated “wait,” Christians base their anticipation of the future in whom they wait.  “Hope in God”[3] is the command based on the fact that Yahweh is “the hope of Israel.”[4] Even Job in his agony declared, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”[5] “Wait for The Lord” the Psalmist says twice in Psalm 27:14, overloading the sentence in Psalm 130:5, “I wait for Yahweh, my whole person waits, I wait in His Word.”

Why would we reflect if we have no hope, no expectation of Someone or something beyond ourselves?  Glenn Tinder masterfully exposes the bankrupt nature of human hope as so-called “progress” in his essay The Fabric of Hope. Likening our experience to an actor in a play, he says we know that there is a world outside ourselves on stage.  That life transcends the drama.  There is a world outside the theatre, so our hope is

“an orientation toward eternity, presupposes a degree of detachment—the detachment inherent in the consciousness of belonging not only to an earthly city but to a heavenly city as well. . . .”[6]

Our troubles in this world cannot be overcome by empty political promises of “hope” which have no certainty, separated from history and transcendence.  Micah 7:7 says what we mean, “I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

Hope can come in many forms, but always outside ourselves.  Luke Wilson stars in a movie to ponder just such an idea: Henry Poole Lives Here. Sometimes the inexplicable occurs to give hope to the hopeless.  Full of Christian imagery and truly caring believers, Henry is altered when he is forced to confront that which he cannot explain.  After suffering his own devastating loss, Mark Pellington created a film to reflect upon the realities of life lived after loss.[7] Henry Poole Lives Here is an example of reflection leading to hope.

My preaching days began when I was 13.  The first sermon I ever wrote began this way: “A person can live 40 days without food, 3 days without water, 5 minutes without air, but not one second without hope.”  Here is to Flannery O’Connor, my daughter, and all those other “apologists of hope.”  May their stories, their poems, their films cause many to reflect and so, to hope.

 

[1] Flannery O’Connor. 1957, 1997. Mystery and Manners. (Noonday, reprint):77-78.

[2] John E. Hartley. 1980. qawa. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Moody): 2:791-92 and Paul R. Gilcrist. 1980. yachal. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Moody): 1: 373-74.

[3] Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5; 130:7

[4] Jeremiah 14:8; 17:13; 50:7.

[5] Job 13:15.

[6] Glenn Tinder. 1999. The Fabric of Hope: An Essay. (Emory University): 123.  Tinder’s philosophical commentary should be read by all interested Christians intending to invest their life in political life.

[7] John Anderson.  “After a Devastating Loss, A New Subtext.” New York Times 10 August 08: AR9. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/movies/10ande.html retrieved 27 January 09.