Submission is Not Oppression

Submit: to yield oneself to the power or authority of another...to defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision etc... (dictionary.com)

As a woman educated in a liberal arts school, the word submit took on a new meaning from the one I learned growing up.  Growing up in a Christian home with a good, Godly mother as an example, I learned that submission was the natural balance in relationship.  Then in college, with a focus on gender studies, I read a lot of feminist prose which influenced my definition of submit.  It began to mean to oppress, abuse or enslave.  I still enjoy women's studies and I do think that a lot of those women truly felt oppressed but that is the worldly view of submission.  When I was in college, I was so determined not to become one of those oppressed women that I actually told my husband on our first date that I wasn't the kind of girl to roll over and follow orders.  I said it in a sort of nasty, defensive way so I'm surprised (and very glad) that he stuck around. 

After we got married, I realized that my view of submission was not working.  Not just in my relationship with my husband but with God.  You see, when you define a word like submit for yourself, when I became so determined not to be submissive because I didn't want to be oppressed, I was refusing to be submissive to God as well as my husband.  When I realized this and began to submit to God's will, the burden was lifted. I yielded that weight of trying to do everything on my own.  The same thing happened with my husband.  Being a submissive wife does not mean that I don't get an opinion.  It means that I value his opinion.  I am not his slave.  I am his friend and he is mine.  Instead of trying to do everything on my own and answer all the tough questions on my own, we do it together and we are both happier because of it.  Mary Kassian was quoted in Disciplines of  a Godly Woman as saying:

Believers  who cannot submit to human authority do not know how to submit to God, for it is God who demands submission within human relationships.  Conversely, believers will be ineffective leaders, incapable of fulfilling human authority roles, until they learn to submit to others. (Hughes pp.37)

We are all called as believers to submit ourselves wholly to God as living sacrifices.  It is not our will to be done but his.  The relationship of submission in marriage is a practice, or model if you will, of submission to God. 

I challenge you to change your view of submission.  Do not view submission to others as oppression but view it as sharing the burden.  Whether it is submission to your spouse, parent, employer or pastor, submitting brings peace and comfort. 

Remember your face

"Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what is says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does."

(James 1:21-25 NIV)

 

 

Why is this so difficult?  If you read it literally, the difficult thing to do would be to forget what you look like.  This is such a great analogy because it is so hard to forget something you have seen.  Have you ever seen something you really didn't want to see?  Everyone has so if you said no, you're lying!  Old people in their underwear, dog gets sick on the carpet, you get the idea...  As you are reading those examples, some image just came to your mind.  Right?  It is so difficult to forget a visual image.  Christians who know what is right but do what is wrong often say, "It's complicated, you don't understand."  What is there to understand?  That is the point of the story.  It should be harder to forget what you look like than to knowling go back to a sinful life.  Do what it says.  Why is it so hard to stop living adulterous lifestyles?  Why is it so hard to share the gospel with others?  Why is it so hard to give God some of your time?  There is nothign complicated about it. 

 

Follow the word in every way and you don't have to worry about what you look like.