The Joy of Godly Submission

When you were a teenager, did you ever resent your parent’s authority? Do you ever remember them telling you not to do something and you went ahead and did it anyway? Or did they ever tell you to do something, so you intentionally and defiantly didn’t do it? I think at some point or another most of us have acted that way.

Even now, when I decide to do something around the house, and then someone should tell me I should do that, I sometimes don’t feel like doing it any more. Perhaps it’s because now I can no longer take credit for doing it out of my free will because I was told to do it. There are certain times or areas in our lives where we just want to do the opposite of what we are told. Maybe out of spite. Maybe out of stubbornness and pride.

Usually we think of doing the opposite as a bad thing. That’s what I thought, at least until I came across a show, where one of the characters decided that he would try doing the opposite of what he normally did. He figured, "I have never had any luck doing what I normally do, so what could be wrong with trying the opposite." It worked. He began doing the opposite in every situation. Each time he was rewarded with more and more success, and even got his dream job. All by just being the complete opposite of everything he had ever been before. He made the comment at one point in the show, ironically enough, "this is my religion now--doing the opposite."

In today’s Epistle lesson, I believe James is telling us something very similar. That we should do the very opposite of what we would normally do. In fact, he uses a word to describe what we should do that many consider a dirty word. It’s a word we may be embarrassed to talk about, much less embrace, and may wish could be deleted from our Bibles. The word I’m talking about is “submit.”

In our society this word has been associated with images of slavery, of domestic violence, of authoritarian injustice, of an abuse of power, of exploitation, overbearing leadership and autocratic despotism. Is this what James is talking about when he encourages us to submit to God? Is this what godly submission really is about?

Let us explore the relationship God wants to foster with us. This relationship began with Him. “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It began with His love for us, that we should not remain in our sins and be eternally separated from Him. It began with God the Father sending His Son into our world. And the Son consented with great joy (John 17:13), submitting Himself to His Father’s will and willingly endured the shame of the cross (Hebrews 12:2).

St. Paul writes that Jesus, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8) Here we have God, our Heavenly Father, submitting His beloved Son to suffering and shame. The Son in turn submits Himself to His Father’s will. God does this for us, His rebellious children, out of His tender, Fatherly love.

In preparing couples for marriage we always study Ephesians 5 that includes the apostle Paul’s exhortation to wives, which is part of the marriage vows, “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord.” (5:22) Some find this distasteful and difficult to accept. But I find that in reality, this is actually the easier part of the marriage vows. What the apostle requires of the husbands is far more difficult: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (5:25). In promising to love their wives as Christ loved them, husbands promise to give up everything—even to the point of laying down their lives—for the happiness and well-being of their spouse. Wives who have husbands like this are usually more than willing to entrust their lives to the leadership of someone who loves them like this. Love is the proper starting point for submission.

Another important aspect of godly submission is that it cannot be demanded of anyone, but can only given. God the Father did not force His Son to take on humanity and make His life a sacrifice for sins. Instead, as Jesus nears the cross, we find Him expressing His greatest delight and joy at nearing the climax of His mission. Jesus’ submission to His Father’s will was entirely voluntary, sharing the same joy as His Father in seeing us redeemed from our sins and brought into fellowship with His Father.

The same is true with Paul’s exhortation to wives. Note that it is a request for voluntary submission. It is not addressed to the husband, that he force his wife to submit to him. Nevertheless, the husband is to love his wife in such a way that she willingly and joyfully submit herself into his loving care. That is the only way godly submission can be achieved.

But how can we husbands love our wives as Christ loved us? I suppose we husbands can be grateful for the willingness of our wives to forgive our shortcomings as far as our loving them is concerned as well as respect them for entrusting themselves to our imperfect leadership.

Thankfully, God is also gracious toward us. By right, God could expect us to submit ourselves completely to Him. But He does not force us to submit. He desires voluntary submission. That’s why He loves us into submission. Now that God has bared His heart and shown His love to us, how is it that we still live as if we were our own masters and that God did not matter? That is the perplexing reality that James tackles in our Bible text. James shows us three ways in which we have turned our backs on God’s love, failing to entrust ourselves to His loving care.

The first involves our relationship with our fellow Christian. When we say anything negative about them behind their backs or even if we think it in our hearts, we judge them. Here James may be thinking about the Sermon on the Mount: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged” (Matthew 7:1-2). Being critical of the brother is seen by James as an offense against the Law and the Lawgiver. James has in mind one of God’s foremost commandments: “You shall love your neighbour.” If in our hearts we express or harbour any uncharitable thought, we have broken God’s Law. To be a Law-breaker means we judge His Law to be inadequate and established ourselves as God, the Giver of the Law. What makes this offence even worse is how it must hurt God who has been so abundantly charitable towards us to see how critical we can still be with each other.

James encourages us to keep the Law by loving our fellow Christian; by not speaking or thinking badly about him, or as Luther says in his explanation to the eighth commandment, “to put the best construction on everything” or “to explain everything in the kindest way.” My father used to tell me, “If you do not have anything good to say about someone, then keep quiet.” This is some of the best advice I have ever received in my life, something I will do well to remember. This is the first area James shows us where we can be practical about our submission to God.

The second has to do with ignoring God’s plan for our lives. “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’” (4:13) This is a warning not to make plans for our lives that do not include God. We make plans for our education, our careers, our family, our vacation, we set financial goals, we have retirement expectations, but how often do we ask what God would have us do? The sad thing is that once we have made all these plans, we find that we hardly have any time and resources left for God and the work of His kingdom. That is why James concludes: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Therefore, submitting ourselves to God must also include allowing Him to influence the direction and plans for our lives.

The third area James addresses in our text has to do with our attitude towards money. Our attitude should be governed by the constant awareness that these are the last days. Once Christ returns or once we die, how we have used our money is going to be entered as evidence on the Day of Judgment. But one may ask: “What does money have to do with whether I go to heaven? Isn’t that determined solely by God’s grace through faith in Christ Jesus?” That is entirely correct! We don’t enter heaven based on how well we perform. Then isn’t it shameful to see that God’s amazing grace has made no difference in our hearts and in our lives? For how we treat money is an accurate external demonstration of where our faith really is: Whether in God or in money.

Anyone who has submitted himself to God, who has entrusted his life to God, will agree that the promise God gives us is entirely trustworthy: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10) It is truly a great joy to know that if I entrust my life to the Lord, He will lift me up. That is also why we can be bold in approaching God’s throne of grace, confessing our sins and our inability to keep His Law of love as we should. For we have a Heavenly Father who keeps His promise to forgive and lift us up. May we then strive to experience the same joy of Christ as he submitted Himself completely to the good and gracious will of His Father. And may the love of God the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit keep your hearts and minds in perfect peace. Amen.