What is the biblical definition of submission?

Submitting myself to another, means, my accepting and taking a subordinate place under another person's lawful authority over me. Obedience means my behaving and acting according to that place, no matter, whether I am in it by my own choice, or through necessity (by birth, etc.,) by submitting my will to the will of the one, who is in the place of authority over me Submission and obedience, in a natural sense, are not necessarily identical. 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. "The principle of submission and of obedience," as another has said, "is the healing principle of humanity; only God must be brought into it, in order that the will of man may not be the guide after all. But the principle that governs the heart of man in good, is always and everywhere obedience."

Now, before proceeding, we may just notice, that although the words that head this chapter, refer to all those who are in a subordinate relationship, i.e., wives, children and servants, yet the word "submitting," in our chapter, as well in the other passages of the New Testament, is only applied to wives, but not to children nor servants. The reason is clear. Children, as being born in the subordinate place, and servants, or rather slaves (for in those times, hired servants were unknown) being in the same place either by birth, or purchase, or as prisoners of war, could not be enjoined to accept or take that place, in submitting themselves to their superiors — parents or masters, — because they were already in that place, independently of their own consent. Therefore they are in our chapter exhorted to obey their superiors. It is not so with wives. They have become so by their own free consent; and knowing beforehand the character and relative duties of their place. Therefore they are told to "submit" themselves to their own husbands, and reverence them, according to the place, upon which they have entered with their own full and free consent, as before the Lord, and according to His will, Who has thus united them. Children and servants (or slaves), therefore, are told to obey, whilst submission — and submissiveness — is enjoined upon the wives.

But, as I have said before, the divine injunction: "Submitting yourselves one to another," applies, in a general sense, to all the three classes of subordinate relationships in our chapter. For if children and servants are not enjoined to submit themselves, from the reason stated above, yet they as well as the wives are to behave to their superiors in the spirit of submission, i.e., submissiveness, which characterises true Christian obedience. Thus the exhortation in chap. 5:21, in this sense, applies not only to children, but also to the servants of our days. Therefore, as under grace, and in the spirit of grace, the injunction is general.

God wants us to submit, out of love for Him and for Christ, to what He tells us in His Word.

God alone is absolute in power, majesty and authority. Therefore, the very nature of every creature is one of submission. We may think we are above the level of having to submit to anything, but this very attitude is already one of having submitted to our own rebellious pride. We are always submitting whether to good or to evil, for we are mere creatures, not authorities in God's creation.

There is first of all complete submission. Remember that a “commandment” is a divine imperative decree: it is an order. Whether to Adam or to Noah, they had to submit. Adam did not, but Noah did submit. Are we willing to submit our will to His will? This submission is not imposed upon us, we are not forced to submit to our Lord Jesus! That would be servile. No, it is because we love Him that we willingly and gladly submit to Him.

The Jews, under the law, said indeed, trusting to their own strength, We will do all that thou hast spoken. They undertook to do everything when it was prescribed to them as a condition. But here it is much more; it is the Spirit that makes them say, "What wilt thou have me to do?" It is submission, it is the principle of obedience really produced in the heart: "I know not what thou wilt, but here am I to do thy will." It is obedience without reserve. There is no question here of rules that man cannot accomplish, but of the whole will changed; no more to do one's own will, but to do God's will.

James again insists on humility; that man's will should be broken, and that he should be subject to God. For obedience, and having no will of one's own, is true humility; and to this the goodness and grace of God invites man. Confidence in God leads the soul to submit itself to Him. This is both a duty and a necessity, but it is done heartily where confidence exists. It is the truth of our relationship with God, and the soul is happy. We do not need to have a will for ourselves; if God who loves us has a will for us in all things, we ought to commit ourselves to Him. What grace that the omnipotent God should be always thinking of us in all the details of our lives!

Firstly, the Apostle says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” Grace alone will lead to submission. The sense of the grace and goodness of God will give such confidence in God that the soul will gladly give up its own will and submit to God. Instead of seeking to be somebody and something in the world, the Christian will cheerfully accept the circumstances that God orders. The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of One whose confidence in God led Him to submit perfectly to God. In the presence of the most sorrowful circumstances, when rejected by the cities in which He had wrought His miracles of love, He said, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. 11:26).

The third trait of those filled with the Spirit is that they submit themselves “one to another in the fear of Christ.” We ought never to be self-assertive, but ever willing to submit to others. This does not mean that we are to submit to anything that will compromise the holy Name of the Lord, but rather that when no divine principle is involved we do not press our own ideas. Our submission is to be “in the fear of Christ,” which means that we submit with our eye on Him and what secures His honour.

The exhortations to submission are especially addressed to wives, children and servants, the wives being exhorted before the husbands, the children before the parents, and the servants before the masters. This order would seem to attach great importance to the principle of submission. One has said, “The principle of submission and obedience is the healing principle of humanity.” Sin is disobedience and came into the world through disobedience. Ever since, the essence of sin has been man doing his own will and refusing to be subject to God. An insubject wife will make a miserable home; an insubject child will be an unhappy child; and a world not subject to God must be an unhappy and miserable world. Not until the world is brought into subjection to God, under the reign of Christ, will its sorrows be healed. Christianity teaches this subjection, and the Christian home should anticipate something of the blessedness of a subject world under the reign of Christ.

THE first relationship brought before us, both in Ephesians and Colossians, is that of the wife. All these exhortations, indeed, commence with those from whom submission is due. As one has said, "This is the genius of Christianity in our evil world, in which man's will is the source of all the evil, expressing his departure from God, to whom all submission is due. The principle of submission and of obedience is the healing principle of humanity; only God must be brought into it in order that the will of man be not the guide after all. But the principle that governs the heart of man in good is always and everywhere obedience. I may have to say that God must be obeyed rather than man; but to depart from obedience is to enter into sin. A man may have, as a father, to command and direct; but he does it ill if he do it not in obedience to God and to His word. This was the essence of the life of Christ: 'I come to do thy will, O my God.'" Accordingly the apostle begins his exhortations, with regard to relationships, by giving the general precept: "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."* (Eph. 5:21.) Hence it is according to a divine order that the subject relationships in each case should come first; and consequently the wives are addressed before the husbands.