Hello dear friend. It's been a while since we met here to discuss the will of God. But at the right time , God has brought us back to know his will and do them. We have discussed some in my previous blogs and today we will continue to consider the will of God in a practical sense . It shall be more about relationships.
Our topic of discussion for today is submission. It's the will of God that we be Submissive. But before I dive deeper into this subject, i wish to refresh your mind on what have been discussed so far concerning the will of God.
First we started by learning the two main will of God in a broader sense . That is the will of God that we humans can not do anything about its fulfilment. We called that the definitive or predetermined will of God. This type has God at the center. Whether we work with him or not, it comes to pass. God has promised us of the elect and therefore commands all Christians to send the Gospel to them to believe and be saved. Not everyone does this work of evangelism but it's obvious that our disobedience has never blocked God from saving people. Even if we refuse to go and preach, God will raise another person to do it.
We also considered the will of God that man play a very important role. Without man, the ends may not be achieved or may be achieved somehow without the blessing he or she might receive from it. For example, it's the will of God that we be sanctified. But this will of God depends on us. We have to be obedient to the means he has given us to be sanctified. He has said that "if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live." Romans 8;13. And from this text we can see that we will have to perform the action of mortification.
It was under this will of God that partly depend on us that we decided to consider and expound upon . We first started with salvation. Which is that it's the will of God that everyone be saved and none should perish. But it's unfortunate that not everyone is saved because not everyone believes in the good news. We also went on to talk about the infilling of the holy ghost. We understood that it the will of God that we be filled with his spirit. He desires that we be controlled by the power of the holy ghost. We continued to look at the will of God in our sanctification. And just as I have said earlier on , it's the will of God that we be holy by reliance on the holy ghost.
Coming to today's topic, we will understand from scriptures that it's the will of God that we be Submissive. And we will also notice that this deals with humility. Humility is the point when it comes to submission.
Firstly, it's the will of God that we be Submissive to one another as people of God. "Ephesians 5:21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ". Here we hear the apostle asking the people as part of the sanctification to submit to one another. That's to see the other person as superior . We should always be willing to humble ourselves before people. For it is the teaching of the bible that the one who wants to be great must be small now. If anyone wants to be exalted, he or she must be a servant now. Jesus is our best example here. To the Philippians Paul wrote that
Philippians 2:5-8 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.
Secondly , we are to extend this humility to our spouses. Continuing with the text we read from verse 22 that "Ephesians 5:22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord."And also "Ephesians 5:25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her"
Finally, we are to submit to our leaders . It's from this verse in the book of 1 Peter that we will hear submission as God's will. Let's read it
1 Peter 2:13-15 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
It's the will of God that we humble ourselves to government authorities. They were set in place by God himself. Let's show the necessary respect to our leaders even if they persecute us. Because by doing that "ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:" There are some people, haters of God, who are always looking for grounds to accuse us of not showing patriotism towards our countries and communities. But this will silence them if we are able to obey them and submit to their words. This doesn't mean we should involve ourselves in the darknes that some leaders are trying to purport in the nations. If it's sin, let's denounce it but when it comes to matters that do not have any effect on our spiritual lives, let's give them our full submission.
It's a pleasure to be with you. Peace be with you.
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