Ephesians 5:21

The first three chapters show the believer's standing in Christ, and God's thoughts about the Church. The practical teaching that follows falls into four groups. They match the believer's relationship with the Church (Eph. 4:1‑16), the world (Eph. 4:17‑5:21), the family (Eph. 5:21 — Eph. 6:9), and the powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10‑17). In each of these positions, the rule of conduct given to him matches his standing, shown earlier in the letter.

Another word is added here that seems a little out of place: "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." The cheerfulness stirred up by wine is quarrelsome and self-assertive. The gladness of heart poured out by the Spirit is not. The deep sense of grace that calls forth praise and thanksgiving to God humbles instead of exalting. The fuller the heart is of praise to God, the lower it will be in its own esteem. So comes submission to one another. It does not come merely out of kindness and good nature, but out of the deep sense of the fear of God. That fear never stops filling the heart occupied with His goodness and love.

Submitting myself to another means accepting and taking a lower place under another person's lawful authority over me. Obedience means behaving and acting according to that place. I do that by submitting my will to the will of the one who has authority over me. It holds whether I am there by my own choice or by necessity, such as birth. Naturally speaking, the two are not always the same. There may be an outward submission without real obedience. In the Christian sense, both are a matter of the heart, as being done to the Lord.

Then you get a spirit of grace, "submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ." It does not mean submitting to do evil if you ask me to. It means that faith has no will of its own. If you want me to do wrong, I cannot do it, because it is not God's will; but in everything where my own will is concerned, I give way to you. We are to submit to one another in the fear of Christ. It is what sitting in heavenly places produces on earth.

Now look at the second part of our verse. It tells us that such submission of one to another is to be "in the fear of Christ." That is the correct reading, not "in the fear of God," as the common version has it. The fear of God is all-important. It marks the beginning of God's work in a soul, as with the thief on the cross. It also marks the Christian's walk in holiness of life (2 Cor. 7:1). Yet in this passage, as in Colossians 3, the Spirit of God delights to set Christ Himself fully before the eye of faith as Head of the Church — the second Person of the Godhead, the Father's well-beloved.

Christian humility of mind willingly takes the lowest seat at God's great feast of mercy. It knows how unworthy it is of what it is so freely called to share. So it gladly lets God's other guests go first. If the heart is in its right state, it will always see the Lord in His people. Then showing them deference in love becomes an easy and welcome duty. This habitual turning to God is what keeps Christian fellowship from sinking into ordinary human company.