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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Mutual
Submission When someone dictates
submission, we don't like it. With
submission in mind, the Greek word "hypotasso" is often
translated as "submit" in our English New Testament.
In its general first-century, Greco-Roman cultural setting,
hypotasso was often cold-hearted, harsh, and dictatorial submission. A
soldier, for example, was commanded to submit to his superior or else pay
the penalty. In light of this,
how are we to understand submission when the New Testament tells a wife to
obey and submit to her husband (Ephesians 5:22), children to parents
(Ephesians 6:1), slaves to masters (Ephesians 6:5), Christians to pastors
(1 Peter 5:5), to government (Romans 13:1) and to Jesus (John 14:15)? The common understanding
of a word or concept in a culture may differ from an individual's
understanding of that word or concept living in that culture.
I learned this when I moved to A linguistic study of
the New Testament's usage of hypotasso or submission as it applies to
Christian relationships differs from its general Greco-Roman usage.
In fact, submission as applied to Christian relationships is
warm-hearted and caring. It's
a mutual yielding to one another. It's
premised on a free flow exchange of respect in the hope of securing
healthy productive relationships, something dictatorial style submission
can never provide. In today's western-world
culture, a hedonistic, arrogant individualism is becoming the social norm.
A lack of mutual yielding is creating cultural chaos that is
leading to cultural death. Remember,
pride precedes destruction (Proverbs 16:18).
Ephesians 5:21 speaks to this issue.
"Submit to one
another out of reverence for Christ." Our English verb
"submit" in the above verse is a present passive Greek
participle. In my thinking,
this suggests that what appears to be a command to submit in our English
text can be understood as an admonition to be submissive ones.
This places the emphasis on us inherently being submissive and not
simply acting submissively. We
submit, then, because submissive people are who we are.
We just don't submit because we are commanded to submit.
If we fail in this matter, we shame Jesus and destroy our Christian
witness, which, sad to say, is often seen in church.
How different our world
would be if we exercised godly submission.
How different church would be if we were transformed into
submissive ones, where a mutual yielding to one another was commonplace.
A free flow exchange of respect, premised on a desire for healthy
productive relationships would result in a healthy productive church.
I believe this is possible without any violation of Biblical truth.
Post
Script For a
more detailed explanation of New Testament submission you can purchase
my book entitled "Submission To Authority" on all Amazon web
sites.
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