Slideshow image

Order and Submission…“them are fighting words!”  Or at least they will ruffle some feathers.  What is sadly ironic is that these words, the concepts behind them, and the rightful application of them are actually intended to do the opposite of ruffling feathers and causing fights.  God, as the eternal perfect being, has order and submission inherent to himself.  He has also designed and decreed order and submission to be inherent in his church.  There will be order and submission in the coming kingdom.  There will be order and submission in the eternity of the new heaven and new earth.

Why do we so strongly want to buck against order and submission?  Why do we continually believe the lie that ‘freedom’ and ‘autonomy’ and “you do you, I’ll do me” and “follow your heart” and all the rest is the best way for human community to operate?  We know of course the answer is sin.  Sin has corrupted us towards perpetual selfishness.

In reflection on the sermon, coupled with our Small Group discussion, I want to be better at assessing what it is that ‘ruffles my feathers’ or stirs the ‘fight’ within me.  I want to more faithfully examine myself to see if I am ordered as God commands to be ordered.  Am I submitting myself to whom I should be, in the way I should be?

Pastor referenced 1 Corinthians 16:16, stating that we must submit to those who “devote themselves to the service of the saints.”  We have many in our church body who fit this description! 

  • Will you help me submit my opinions, my ‘rights’, my interests, my very self to these saint-servers?
  • Will you let me help you do the same?
  • Will you help me become one of these saint-servers?
  • Will you become a saint-server as well?

Let us together submit ourselves to “one-anothering” the church, for order is only as good as those to who give themselves to it rightly.