Ephesians 5:21 ...and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Paul has just given us this command, to be filled with - constantly surrendered to and empowered by - the Holy Spirit. And we talked last week about how we do this - by faith. We walk with Christ the same way we come to know Him to begin with. But how do we know if we’re really filled with the Spirit? How do we know? We can expect to see some of His fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. [Jn 15.8] And like any fruit tree, the more mature the tree, the more fruit you will see. A tree that’s only been in the ground a couple of years normally won’t have as much fruit as a tree that has been in the ground for many. So there will be fruit. Fruit of the Light - v. 9 (all goodness & righteousness & truth). And Paul mentions several other things in this section. They’re signs of His filling (fruit), but also commands, connected to the primary command here to be filled with the Spirit. So, as we saw last week, there is this speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And there is this singing in our hearts to the Lord, and there is this always giving thanks to the Father. A life of joyful grateful celebration! And the 4th sign/command is, be subjecting ourselves to one another. We should see it, and we should do it. But let's set that up first...
So, we know we’re walking in the fulness of the Spirit of Christ as we see fruit. You will know them by their fruit, He said. Now there is another way we know that we’re filled with the Spirit. The assurance of faith. Hebrews 11.1 - faith is what? The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. We don’t see the Spirit coming physically onto us. It’s not typically a visual physical thing. But here’s the thing - if God commands something which really only He can do, then we know for sure that He wants it for us, and we know that if we ask then He will do it. [1Jn 5.14-15] Does God wants us to be filled with His Spirit? Controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit? And Whose job is it to do the filling? Our job is to ask. To surrender. And then to believe. Faith. We receive Christ by faith. We are filled with the Spirit by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We don’t always see it physically. But with the eyes of faith, we take hold of the promises. We are assured and convinced of them.
So you and I get up in the morning, and we ask (and then trust) the Lord to fill us with His Spirit. With a surrendered heart. But what if you do that, and you don’t feel any different? This is where we need to remember that faith is not a feeling. Feelings come and go. They may be based on circumstances, what I ate for dinner, how I slept last night. Feelings change. But God never changes. His Word never changes. [the old train illustration reminds us that the train that is our life is not pulled by the caboose of feelings but rather by the engine of what is true and we put the fuel of our faith not in the caboose of our feelings but rather in the true fact of God and His Word]. And it is not about how much faith I have. What makes faith work is not how much I have, it’s where I put it. The object of my faith. [A broken down passenger van is not a safe means of travel no matter how much faith I have] The object of my faith makes all the difference. How much faith do we really need? No more than a tiny mustard seed - IF we put it in the right place. We put our trust in the Lord. With all our heart. And so I can know for sure with the assurance of faith that when I ask the Lord in faith to fill me with His Spirit with a surrendered heart, that He will do it. It doesn’t matter how I feel. Well, feelings do matter, but they are not the final word. God’s Word is the final word - we trust in Him and in what He says, not in our feelings. It doesn’t depend on how I feel. And so we know we’re filled with the Spirit by faith, AND by His fruit in our lives. And if there’s not much fruit, I need the Lord to search my heart…
Now at this point it serves us to remember that when the King of the Universe gives us a command, He does so for very good reasons. He is our loving Father, and He wants what is best for us. When God gives us a command, we can know for sure that He either wants to protect us or provide for us. Both, actually. God always wants to protect us and provide for us. And the ultimate outcome of living in to what He wants of course is that the world will see how good He is as we follow Him. But there is another reason He gives us commands. Often times the things He tells us to do are things which our flesh is reluctant to do. The things He tells us not to do are things which our flesh is rather prone to do. He doesn’t need to tell us to breathe, for example. We do that naturally. He doesn’t need to tell us to eat, or to drink, or sleep, or go to the bathroom. We do that naturally. Usually. But how about love? Love the Lord with all your heart? Love your neighbor as yourself? So, me-not-first but me-second or even third (or last). That typically is not a native instinct of our flesh. He has to tell us because the instinct isn’t in us. The Lord gives us these commands as instructions on how to live, on how to rise above our fallen nature. They reflect what He is like. SO it is with all these commands Paul is giving to these Ephesians which relate to loving one another. Loving one another is not a native instinct of our flesh. We don’t always know how to do that, what it should look like - AND we don’t always want to do it. Our flesh isn’t wired for it. Nor do we even have the strength to generate it, much less sustain it. I’m not saying it is always our first choice to NOT love one another, but when there is a command, we need to be asking this question of, how's that working out for me? We need to be on the lookout for ways that our flesh is influencing us to NOT do what God wants.
With all this in mind we want to drill down on this 4th sign/command associated with the filling of the Spirit. Subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. The passage ostensibly reads like this: “You all who have trusted in God’s great and glorious Savior Jesus Christ, who He has blessed and brought into His forever family, joined together: you need to be guarding the oneness which the Spirit is forging between you, and so, you all be flowing together what God wants, and be constantly filled with the Spirit, subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.” There is/ought to be this mutual subjection between believers. This is an overflow, it is an expected outcome of Christ-followers who are tapping into the heart of God and the mighty power of His Spirit. The word means to rank under. To rank under.
This idea of subjection - sometimes there is no choice in the matter. Sometimes this is done forcibly.
Romans 8:20
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it…
Luke 10:17
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
But when this ranking under is done freely, it is an act of humility. It is what Jesus did with his parents - he lived in subjection to them.
Luke 2:51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
I suppose we could ask, did Jesus have a choice? Do you think that was hard for Him? The eternal Son of God? He was tempted in all ways as we are, it says. Yet without sin. He never gave into temptation. Do you think He was ever tempted to NOT rank Himself under Joseph and Mary? I’m not saying He ever dwelt on the thought, but do you think the thought ever crossed His mind? A fiery arrow of temptation from the enemy? Kids - what is our fleshy instinct when it comes to our parents? Is our instinct to always be under their authority? There is a reason God tells children to honor our mother and father - multiple reasons (we’ll talk about this in a few weeks). And one of them is that our fallen instinct is to NOT honor our parents. Jesus chose to rank Himself under His parents. What makes it all the more amazing is that He was the Son of God. And He knew it. Yet He emptied and lowered Himself…
Subjection is a question of authority.
Romans 8:7 …the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so…
Subjection begins with a mind and a heart which subjects itself to God’s authority - to His law, and to what He wants. Is God God? Am I willing to acknowledge that He is the supreme ruler of THE universe, and make Him the supreme ruler of MY universe? Am I willing to rank myself under Him, to walk in surrender to what He wants? I can tell you - if you cannot answer yes to that question, then this section in Ephesians is quite likely to trip you up. If it hasn’t already.
1Corinthians 15:27-28
For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Romans 13:1
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
Why are we told to be in subjection to governing authorities? Ultimately?
Subjection is a matter of surrender. The surrender which we are able to show to parents, to governing authorities, the surrender which we show to one another in the body of Christ flows out of a heart which is walking in surrender to Christ. Similarly, lack of surrender, unwillingness to surrender, to rank ourselves under, I would suggest, indicates a lack of surrender to Christ. And this is the salient point - we don’t rank ourselves under these fellow humans because they are somehow better or more awesome or important than we are. They don’t outrank us in God’s eyes. HE however should outrank us in OUR eyes. Be subject to one another IN THE FEAR OF CHRIST, Paul says. We rank ourselves under these others not because of who they are but because of Who He is. Because we fear and reverence Him. He is awesome. He is better. He is not safe. It all begins and ends here. “…so that God may be all in all…” And HE puts some in authority over us - He gives authority to them to speak into our lives and our wants. Our job is to rank ourselves under those whom He has so designated - because it’s good for our hearts, and more importantly it honors the Lord, His ultimate authority. It shows off His greatness.
One reason we are unwilling to rank ourselves under any other is that we operate under the impression that we - more than anyone else - have our best interests at heart. We know best. We know that WE want what’s best for us - a life free of difficulty and inconvenience. At least we think we know best. And we hesitate to trust, to entrust ourselves and our best interests to anyone else - even to the God Who formed us and Who gave His only Son to die for us. But can we trust the person who lays down their life for us? That they care about us and have our best interests at heart?
I think we also need to be mindful of the heart of rebellion which is the legacy handed down to us as sons/daughters of Adam/Eve, and even as descendants of those who founded this country or who have embraced its values. We are the progeny of rebels. The first couple rebelled against the Lord. They chose NOT to rank themselves under Him. And our founding fathers who threw off the king, they chose not to remain in subjection to the king. We have to admit, that is certainly part of the warp and woof of the fabric of this country. Don’t get me wrong - I am truly grateful to be a citizen of these United States, indebted and so thankful for the sacrifices that have been made to secure the blessings of liberty which we enjoy today and every day in this country. But not everyone was in favor of throwing off the king back in the day. There were many who thought doing so was morally wrong. It was a radical minority which advocated the violent throwing off of the shackles of monarchy.
1Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority… 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
Think about it - who was king when Peter and Paul were writing these things? Rome. Caesar. What kind of a king was he? My point being, as citizens of this land of the free and home of the brave, we are perhaps more prone to resist this idea of surrender, of subjecting ourselves to anyone. The president. The king. Even God Himself.
Have you noticed the disrespect and the vitriol which has issued forth in mass quantities in recent years - from both sides, even from God’s people? I think it’s heartbreaking. Are we as God’s people free to speak out about injustice? Certainly. Are we obligated to obey what God tells us to do if/when the king is telling us to do something different? Of course.
But this returns us to our text today. Subjecting ourselves to one another. In other words, ranking ourselves under one another, and giving one another permission (authority) to speak into our lives. Our choices. Our wants. I give you permission to speak truth in love to me and you do likewise. Nobody is better than anyone else. There is this mutual submission, this mutual dependence and deference, journeying together in humility, as brothers and sisters, beloved children of God. This fosters relationships of caring. Encouragement to walk in surrender. And again, it doesn’t flourish in 18 inches of pew for 60 minutes once a week. It happens best in a circle. Are you experiencing this kind of relationship in the body? Maybe you ought to jump into a small group. Sunday school, or better one of these small groups…Paul is exhorting these believers in Ephesus - and us with them - to be ranking ourselves under one another, walking in humility towards one another with hearts surrendered to the Lord. In the fear of Christ. So, not because who we are or aren’t but because of who He is.
Paul is picturing the glorious bride of Christ, the church, showing off the breathtaking goodness of God for all to see, shining the Light in the darkness - loving one another, making every effort to guard the oneness the Spirit is producing in our midst, growing the body, truthing and building up one another in love - knowing that the Church, this forever family, God’s family, is God’s primary means of bringing the nations to Himself. In God’s grand design He has arranged it such that the mission, the Great Commission goes forward on the beautiful feet of the church. He has given us the Gospel, the Good News. We are that city on a hill. He has poured out His Spirit in our hearts. And He has given us gifts, gifts which He expects us to use to build up the church.
Remember, the Lord’s design is to use all these gifts He has given to the members of Christ’s body to construct one huge fishing net. By which He will use us to fish for men, God’s great rescue mission. There’s this work of service - we are all serving somehow. Every part has a part. There’s this unity of the faith. Our faith as much as anything is characterized by this unfathomable unity. Breaking down dividing lines of culture and color and class and status and gender. People who would otherwise never hang out together. People who in earthly terms perhaps have very little if anything in common - but in Christ, we are made one. We are family. By this, all people will know you are My disciples, if you love one another. Brothers and sisters in Christ. And this family is forever. It’s for keeps!
We’ll take a deeper dive on how this plays out in marriage next week… For now, we embrace our need for one another. Our mandate to love one another (and not simply give lip service to that by sitting in a pew once a week). We embrace our need for the fulness of the Spirit, to be controlled and empowered by Him. And we rank ourselves under one another - but we do it for Christ. In His power. So that He may be all in all…
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