Submission

Submitting yourself according to God’s law and will is lovely and pure and good; it is victory over sin; it is the very way itself.

Sin causes a person to fall into the ditch on either side of the way. It is just as bad irrespective of into which ditch we fall. Our bitter adversary loves it just as much whether we fall into the one ditch or the other.

Pride makes a person unwilling to be submissive, in any case not to people, and this leads into the one ditch.

Cowardice causes a person to be dominated by strong human spirits who want to rule over him, and this leads into the other ditch.

There is an enormous difference between being dominated and voluntarily submitting yourself.

God is both wisdom and goodness personified. He knows what is best for us and He wants the best for us. Therefore we can safely choose—according to the perfect law of liberty—to submit ourselves according to the Word:

1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Eph. 6:1.

2. Wives, submit to your own husbands in all things. Eph. 5:22.

3. The man under Christ in all things. 1 Cor. 11:3.

4. Young people under their elders. 1 Pet. 5:5.

5. Servants under their masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling. Eph. 6:5.

6. Each soul under the governing authorities. Rom. 13:1.

7. All of us under one another. 1 Pet. 5:5; Phil. 2:3.

Notation: We should always obey God more than men so that we never act against our conscience at any cost.

Elias Aslaksen