7.19.2006
1 Corinthians 11 - Authority & Submission
Submission to authority is a foreign concept in today's culture - both Christian and non-Christian. We struggle with this topic in the church because of past abuses, unfamiliarity with scripture, and our own failure to submit to Christ. The Journey entry for today was by a lay person who comletely skirted this issue and talked only about the Lord's Supper. I don't want this to be the pattern of my life. I want to deal with hard issues head on so that I might press deeper into the heart of Christ.
Our example of submission is Christ who talked of His own sustenance as submission to His Father's will and work (john 4:32-34). He does this because it makes God look good (Isaiah 26:8). In a microcosmic sense this is how men and women should relate. Since this is not an issue of equality or rank before God we have to press harder into the truth in this passage (Galatians 3:28). In the middle east to this day the way a woman dresses reflects her attitude towards God and her husband. What is even more compelling is that Paul is directing a bunch of rebels that have their own desires and freedom in mind and not God's. True love understands the responsibility of authority. It leads and cherishes and serves with authority instead of abusing it. True love also understands the role of submission. It is not some sick and twisted perversion of power. Rather, it seeks to complete, partner, and make better. God calls this act glory. CS Lewis said it this way:
"I think we delight to praise what we may enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."
Implications:
1) Find your greatest delight in praising God - with word and deed
2) Husbands should love their wives with the radical and unconditional love of Christ (1Corinthians 13:1-13) as the supreme act of authority
3) Wives should not try to find independence from her husband but find dependence in God by being a completer to her man
Our example of submission is Christ who talked of His own sustenance as submission to His Father's will and work (john 4:32-34). He does this because it makes God look good (Isaiah 26:8). In a microcosmic sense this is how men and women should relate. Since this is not an issue of equality or rank before God we have to press harder into the truth in this passage (Galatians 3:28). In the middle east to this day the way a woman dresses reflects her attitude towards God and her husband. What is even more compelling is that Paul is directing a bunch of rebels that have their own desires and freedom in mind and not God's. True love understands the responsibility of authority. It leads and cherishes and serves with authority instead of abusing it. True love also understands the role of submission. It is not some sick and twisted perversion of power. Rather, it seeks to complete, partner, and make better. God calls this act glory. CS Lewis said it this way:
"I think we delight to praise what we may enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."
Implications:
1) Find your greatest delight in praising God - with word and deed
2) Husbands should love their wives with the radical and unconditional love of Christ (1Corinthians 13:1-13) as the supreme act of authority
3) Wives should not try to find independence from her husband but find dependence in God by being a completer to her man
