Biblical Word Studies Class 10:
Submit! Resistance is Futile

C. Michael Holloway
29 November 1998

1. Opening and introduction.
2. Very quick review of previous weeks.
1. In the previous 9 classes we've talked about heart, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, so called head knowledge, so called heart knowledge, gossip, slander, humility, judging, predestination, and foreknowledge.
2. Last week I also mentioned that the common theme running through all our discussions is the importance of integrated thinking. That is, thinking about the similarities between things, instead of the differences; seeing the forest and not just the trees.
3. The subject of today's class is the word submission. When we took a vote a couple of weeks ago about what you all wanted us to study the final 2 weeks of the class, this word received the highest number of votes, so that's why we're studying it.
1. If you had to guess, without actually looking up the answer, how many times the words submission, submit, and submissive appear in the NASB, what would you guess?
1. I would've guessed about 50-75. Annette guessed 3-4. She was closer than I was.
2. These words actually appear only 12 times in the NASB: 3 times in the Old Testament and 9 times in the New Testament. In the New King James, they appear 25 times; we'll see why this difference exists in a minute.
2. The 3 O.T. occurrences are each a translation of a different Hebrew word, none of which is particularly interesting.
3. For the 9 N.T. occurrences, 7 are translations of a particular Greek word or its variants. That Greek word is hupotasso [hoop-ot-as'-so], which comes from hupo [hoop-o] "under" and tasso [tas-so] "to arrange in an orderly manner".
1. The active form of the verb means "to place under", "to affix", "to subordinate"
2. The passive form means "to be subject"
3. The middle form means "to subject oneself", "to be subservient", "to submit voluntarily"
4. We will come back to this word later on in the lesson.
4. This Greek word appears in the New Testament about 35 more times besides these. In those places, the NASB translates it as "put in subjection", "subject", "subjected", "subjecting", or "subjection".
5. This explains the primary reason for the difference in the number of occurrences of submit and its variants in the NASB and the NKJV. The NKJV uses a form of submit in places were the NASB uses a form of subject.
6. In looking at verses, we will consider ones that use forms of subject, in addition to those that use forms of submit.
4. Before we discuss exactly what submission means, let's first look at the relationships that the Bible says involve submission.
1. Everyone is to submit to God.
1. James 4:7 -- Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
2. Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
2. Everyone is to submit to their leaders in the church.
1. Hebrews 13:17 -- Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
2. 1 Corinthians 16:15-16 -- Now I urge you, brethren (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the saints), {16} that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors.
3. Within the church, the general command to submit to church leaders is a bit stronger for women, in that women are not to exercise certain types of authority.
1. 1 Timothy 2:11-12 Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. {12} But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
2. I'm not going to spend much time on this particular area.
3. Everyone is to submit to their government leaders.
1. 1 Peter 2:13-15 -- Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, {14} or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. {15} For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
2. Romans 13:1 -- Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
4. Servants are to submit to their masters.
1. Titus 2:9-10 -- Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, {10} not pilfering, but showing all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
2. 1 Peter 2:18 -- Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.
5. A wife is to submit to her husband.
1. Ephesians 5:22-24 -- Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. {23} For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. {24} But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
2. 1 Peter 3:1-2 -- In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, {2} as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.
6. We are to be subject to one another.
   Ephesians 5:18-24 -- And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, {19} speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; {20} always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; {21} and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
5. We've seen six relationships that the Scripture says require submission; we could list some more, but let's now consider what is meant by submission.
1. Figuring out exactly what submission means is not easy. That it isn't easy is illustrated by the fact that there are at least three misconceptions about submission that are quite common within the church today.
1. One common misconception is that the Bible commands women to submit to men.
1. It does not.
2. The command that a woman submit to her husband does not mean that women in general are required to submit to men in general.
3. The commands are quite specific: a wife is to submit to her own husband.
4. She is not required to submit to anyone else's husband, or to single men, except, it seems to me, in two cases:
1. Those general cases that apply to men, too. For example, women (like men) are to submit to government leaders, employers, church leaders, and God.
2. The special case within the church we mentioned earlier.
2. Another misconception is that submission implies that the one doing the submitting is somehow inferior to the person or group he's submitting to.
1. It does not.
2. Last summer when the Southern Baptist Convention passed resolutions dealing with the marriage relationship, much of the criticism against those resolutions was that they claimed that men were superior to women. The resolutions did no such thing; they simply stated the Biblical principle of a wife submitting to her husband.
3. The Scripture makes clear that believers are not divided into superiors and inferiors, either by submission relationships, or by anything else. As John MacArthur puts it, "there are no differences in intrinsic worth or basic spiritual privilege and rights among God's people." Galatians 3:28 -- There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
4. Submission comes from a difference in God-ordained roles, not a difference in worth.
5. Of course, there is one relationship in which there is a difference in worth, and that is that of believers to God. But it is not the fact that we are to submit to Him that tells us this, it is other parts of the Bible that tell us this.
3. Another misconception is that submission is the same thing as absolute obedience.
1. Traditional marriage vows tend to perpetuate this misconception.
2. So, too do those people who claim that Christians owe unquestioning obedience to the government and to their church leaders.
3. Certainly we are to obey God unconditionally, but it is not the commands to submit to Him that tell us this, it is the commands to obey Him unconditionally that tell us this!
4. We'll talk about this issue more in a few minutes.
2. OK, I've avoided the question long enough: what does submission mean?
1. Although I think you can end up with the same result by other means, I believe this is one case in which it is helpful to look more closely at the original language.
1. As you recall, earlier I said that Greek word used most frequently is hupotasso [hoop-ot-as'-so]
2. This word comes from hupo [hoop-o] "under" and tasso [tas-so] "to arrange in an orderly manner".
3. So, we might say, for example, that for Mordecai to submit to Theobald, means that Mordecai arranges himself in an orderly manner under Theobald.
4. There are three important parts of this, "arranges himself", "in an orderly manner", and "under".
1. "Arranges himself" has the connotation of doing something voluntarily. It is not Theobald who tells Mordecai that he must get arranged, it is Mordecai who voluntarily arranges himself.
2. "Under" has the connotation of giving something up. Whereas originally Mordecai was, if you will, at the same level as Theobald, once he submits to him, he gives something up so that he's at a lower level now, in his role, not his intrinsic worth, as we said earlier.
3. "In an orderly manner" provides not only the method in which something is given up voluntarily, but also the reason: to maintain order.
2. Let's tie this all together. I believe Biblical submission is the voluntary giving up of certain rights to another person (or group) so as to maintain necessary order.
1. The primary right that is given up seems to me most often to be the right of making a final decision.
2. This is the right that is most necessary to maintain order. The old cliche, "too many cooks spoil the broth", is true. Just as multiple cooks putting whatever each wants into a soup would result in a disaster, so, too, would multiple decision makers result in a disaster in each of the relationships in which the Bible calls for submission.
3. One of the subjects of an earlier class is necessary to enable someone to submit biblically. What is that? Humility. Without humility, submission is impossible.
6. Let's now see how well this definition fits with the six submission relationship we listed earlier.
1. It is quite simple to see how it fits with four of the six relationships. We'll consider those first.
1. Consider the relationship of church members to church leaders. According to the definition I gave, submission in this relationship means that church members voluntarily give up to the church leaders their rights to make final decisions about how the church operates. This seems right.
2. Consider the relationship of citizens to government leaders. According to the definition, submission in this relationship means that citizens voluntarily give up to government leaders their rights to make final decisions about how the government operates. This, too seems right.
3. How about the employee/employer relationship? Submission in this relationship means that employees voluntarily give up to their employers their rights to make final decisions about their job. This seems like an appropriate definition.
4. Finally, consider the husband and wife relationship. The definition I gave implies that submission in this relationship means that wives give up to their husbands their rights to make final decisions about matters affecting the family. This, too, seems to me to capture the salient aspects of the relevant Biblical texts.
2. This leaves two relationships: the believer to God, and each believer to other believers.
1. Concerning the believer to God, I believe the best application of the definition is to say that believers voluntarily give up to God their rights to make final decisions about anything.
1. Of course, in this case, one could argue that we're giving up something we don't really have, but speaking in that sort of way is common in Scripture.
2. For example, the Israelites were commanded to give up a tenth of their increase. In truth, that tenth and the other nine-tenths didn't really belong to them anyway.
3. So, I think the definition fits here, too.
2. Concerning one believer to other believers, the difficulty in applying the definition seems to me to be in deciding what rights are being given up.
1. In all the other cases, my assertion seems appropriate that the primary rights being given up are those involving making final decisions. In this case, that seems less appropriate.
2. One might argue that the rights that are being given up are the rights to make final decisions about others' lives. This idea is supported by the ample Biblical teaching on Christian liberty, but, it is a bit problematic in that its not clear that any such rights exist to be given up, and the analysis just given concerning giving up rights to God doesn't apply here.
3. Perhaps the primary rights being given up here are those dealing with how you will be treated by others.
4. I'll leave deciding what rights are being given up here as an exercise for you all.
3. To summarize this part of our discussion, I believe that the definition I've given fits well with the submission relationships given in Scripture.
7. We now need to discuss the circumstances in which it is permissible for someone in a submission relationship to take back some of the rights they relinquished.
1. With only a few exceptions, everyone agrees that one circumstance in which this is allowed is when you are required to do something that is sinful.
1. An example from Scripture that illustrates such a circumstance is Exodus 1:15-17
1. Text: Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other was named Puah; {16} and he said, "When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." {17} But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
2. No one argues, as far as I know, that the Hebrew midwives sinned by failing to submit to their government leaders.
2. We can all think of modern examples, too.
1. A wife whose husband commanded her to abort their child should not do it.
2. If a church's elders decided that the church should have a yard sale on the Lord's Day, the members should refuse to do it.
3. If an employee's supervisor told him to lie to a Grand Jury to cover up the supervisor's wrong doing, he should not do it.
2. It seems to me, however, that the case of outright sin isn't the only one.
1. Let's turn to Colossians 2:20-23 -- If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, {21} "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" {22} (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? {23} These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
2. Although the text doesn't say so explicitly, it seems reasonable to assume that the decrees talked about here were coming from church leaders.
3. These leaders were not requiring the people to engage in sinful acts. There is nothing inherently sinful about not eating certain foods, for example.
4. The leaders were forbidding the people from engaging in certain lawful acts, and, apparently claiming that those lawful acts were actually sinful.
5. Yet, Paul chastises the people for submitting to these prohibitions.
6. It seems to me, then, that this passage suggests that another circumstance in which one may take back rights one has given up is one in which Scripturally permitted acts are deemed sinful, and you are forbidden to do them.
7. Please note that it is not valid to infer from either what I just said, or from the Colossians passage, that this escape clause applies to activities or decisions about which legality or sinfulness isn't in question.
1. For example, CRPC's elders have decided to have worship at 9:30 and Sunday School at 11:15.
2. Suppose that I would prefer to have Sunday School at 9:30 and Worship at 10:45.
3. I could not use this passage in Colossians to justify attempting to get a group of you to agree to meet over in the modular building for Sunday School at 9:30.
4. Although there is nothing inherently sinful about having Sunday School before Worship, the elders haven't claimed that it is. They've simply chosen times that seemed best to them, and selecting a common time is necessary for order.
5. What I could do, of course, is talk to the elders about changing the order. Perhaps they would agree, perhaps they would not. The final decision is theirs.
8. One last thing: Your homework for the week was to consider the extent to which biblical submission requires you to keep silent when you disagree.
1. I believe that it is clear that biblical submission does not require you to keep silent at any time before a decision is made. You are free to express your opinion, so long as you follow all the applicable biblical commands about how to communicate with others.
2. What about after a decision is made? Must you be quiet then?
1. The standard response is, I believe, "Yes, you must be quiet then."
2. Many go even further than that and say that in a situation in which a group makes a decision by vote, biblical submission requires that those who are defeated support the final decision in public as if they were in favor of it. I've even said things like that myself.
3. In preparing for this lesson, I searched far and wide for Biblical justification for this position, and I didn't find it. If someone knows the Biblical justification, please share it.
4. Submission requires you to acknowledge the right of those in authority to make decisions. It requires you to abide by those decisions. It requires you to "do all things without grumbling or complaining." But it does not, so far as I can tell, require you to be silent when asked what you think of a decision. Nor does it require you to pretend a decision was wise that you think was unwise.
5. Let me make this clear: I'm saying that submission requires you to abide by the decision, but it doesn't require you to lie about what you think about the decision.
6. In truth, I believe this is much more conducive to order, anyway. For others to see you abiding by a decision they know you don't like is more likely to encourage them to also abide by the decision, than if they think you're "abiding by" the decision because you agree with it.
9. Choosing what to do next week.