Submit out of Love

It’s time we make some people uncomfortable. It’s time we challenge your comfortable views on life and challenge your reason and your principles. We come in the name of love and humbleness. But we also come with conviction and discernment of the truth. We speak forth what God is and what God is not. May you hear what it is God has for you. Amen

 The movement for women in power has been the new rise. It’s beautiful and wonderful and it is necessary. We have been demeaned and devalued and it seems that home was destined to be our only arena of power and purpose. But just like fighting for the right to vote, abolishing slavery and segregation, we fought for justice and it has produced good fruit. The fight for the rights of women was totally vital to redefining our meaning of what we are and what we are capable of. But how much redefining should we do? From whom are we “taking back” our definition? Being that God created women, He has all authority to have a view and definition on women. Are we so boastful and ambitious that we would attempt to redefine the meaning that God has for women? (Touchy I know.) You would like to think of course not! Maybe you would say, we are just taking back the image that man (society, and people born of sinful nature) have corrupted and exploited. Well, if that is truly the case then I’m all for the cause of bringing back truth and progression. But my fight for justice comes to an immediate halt when it denies the vision that God has for justice and His people. The driving force for Christians that serve and fight for justice is to show the world God’s love (coming in the name of love and humbleness). Because this is the foundation from which we fight, I do not fight for a cause that attempts to rob God of His power and voice and denies or disregards His view on the topic (here’s that conviction and discernment of the truth we talked about). God has created man (humanity) in His own image. The man and the woman are meant to partner together, both complimenting each other in what the partner lacks. God is clear in defining the man’s role to lead and the woman’s role to help and nurture. This is not a negative or lesser image of the woman. May we feel the authority of God that should reign supreme over our fight “for equality”.  May we realize that this is the role that God has called the woman to, and our obedience to God should come before any other feelings or ideals we may have. In Genesis 2:18 God said “it is not right for man to be alone”. So He took from man’ rib and created woman, both in His own image. Ephesians 5:22 says “The woman submits to her husband as to the Lord”. But, when God requires that the wife submit to your husbands, He does not say it without requiring the husband “to love his wife as he loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28). The husband is “to love his wife the way that Christ loves the church” Ephesians 5:25. Christ loves the church with an unconditional love for “He is the head and we (the church) are the body” Ephesians 5:23.  The love that the husband has for his wife is to be deep and true. Christ submitted himself to God’s will when He gave His life for us. In this image of Christ’s submission to the church, we see the call for submission of the husband to the wife as well. This love the husband is required to have for his wife doesn’t sound like the love to someone (the woman) that is lesser than the husband. It doesn’t seem like a love that enforces patriarchal views to me, it so much deeper than that. It actually embodies and symbolizes the love that Christ has for us. And I’m a woman and I recognize that I must submit and am in dire need of Christ’s love. Because the woman submits out of love and not fear, the love the wife has for her husband is the picture and posture that we should come to God with. If it was out of fear, it would make it law, but since Christ, dying for our sins, fulfilled the law we may now obey and submit out of love. Oh what a beautiful call to worship! God does not command for a woman to be lesser than a man. But He requires obedience and submission to His will from both man and woman. Please note, that submission is not a gender defined word. Submission is what God requires of His people (again discerning truth). Even Christ submitted to God when He died on the cross. So women, in our act and fight for equality be mindful in your resistance of submission at all costs. Truth is, though man has corrupted the idea of submission and that may give us a bad image of it. May we know that submission is a God ordained ability that allows us to give God full glory and respect. We submit and obey out of love. Submission is appropriate and required of all in certain arenas and moments in our lives.

And word to the feminist (whom I hold regard and respect to, for there is a need and a call for your mission) God does not prohibit that you learn and work and experience out of the home. He does not misguide you to do what the man says “just because he is a man”. He does not silence your voice and gifts in places of power. (In fact, He hears your cries and rejoices in your triumphs). But God does require full submission to Himself. May I repeat so that you understand the location of this submission. This submission is rooted in which is good “No one is good but God alone” Mark 10:18. Our submission is a matter of the heart. Our flesh fights God’s call for us to give up control over ourselves. So in this way, submission is highly respected, because it is difficult to do without being inspired by tremendous fear. It is an act that many wish that they possessed. For it is freeing yet anxiously uncomfortable. The call to submit to anything other than your own wants, will and needs would challenge anyones’ ego. But be encouraged, that submission is both admirable and humbling. It is painful but beautiful. It is not out of fear but of Ultimate Love.

We submit to God because He first loved us. He gave His only son Jesus Christ that our lives would be spared from His wrath and we would have everlasting life instead (John 3:16) So Christians, you preach Christ in your service and in your fight for justice. You show God’s love and presence with those that are hopeless and suffering. Your fight is against the “slavery of corruption” (Romans 8:21) and that fight is always in line with God. You are serving out of God’s love for His people and His world, which He created anyway. Your call to service is a witness to the people, that God has not forsaken them, and that God sees them and loves them more than they can imagine. And through their thankfulness and restoration God is glorified. So fight, act and serve with God’s love as the purpose and power that you use. (coming in the name of love and humbleness {Jesus Christ} and praying that God will speak to you with conviction and discernment of the truth). Amen