Wisdom is Submissive

For the 4th post in this series on wisdom as expounded in James 3:13-17, we look at the aspect of submission. 

A person who is wise is submissive.

If we haven’t figured it out yet, we will soon comprehend, perhaps grudgingly, that wisdom engages with the whole world, as opposed to the whole world engaging with just one person—namely, ME. 

“Submissive” is probably the last word one would want to mention as a character trait to be integrated into one’s life. Some people turn away at this point, because to them the word has been mucked up by earthly connotations. 

To them, submissive negatively means:

*Door mat.

*Wimp

*Subservient to men (and quickly growing to encompass subservience to women).

*A “goody-two-shoes” who follows all the rules.

*Teacher’s pet

*Kissing up to the boss. 

*No sense of adventure and taking risks.

In fact, dictionary.com would enforce this with one of it’s definitions of the word “submit:”

“to give over or yield to the power or authority of another.”

With all due respect to the dictionary, it doesn’t always get it right, because it was written by man, not God. However, the dictionary does get submission partly right in it’s second definition:

“to subject to some kind of treatment or influence.”

So in Biblical submission, what is to be subjected?

Us.

What are we to subject ourselves to? 

Most people would say the law, the police, the professors, the parents, the husband, the doctor, etc.

But in Biblical submission we submit to God:

“Submit yourselves, then, to God” (James 4:7a).

Think about the times people cut corners and feel the rules just don’t apply to them or to their attainment of the “bottom line.” 

Think of the time we cut corners out of pride that the rules don’t apply to us:

*Reporting an accurate account of our taxes.

*How we operate when on the company’s expense account.

*How we act when nobody’s looking.

*How we treat our marital vows.

*How we handle terms of etiquette: such as RSVP’ing, showing up when we say we will, being on time, answering phone calls, talking things out when there is a disagreement….

All of the above, along with the multitude of ways we shirk and bend the rules, are not “splitting hairs” or “putting too fine a point on things,” being a “prude” or being “unrealistic.” 

And we know this because our conscience, created by God as His stamp on us, pricks us every time we tell a “little white lie” or “look the other way and hope others do too.” 

Our conscience is God’s way of calling us to Himself; to be brought under His merciful and wise ownership.

So let’s take a look at why submission to God and under God is better than submission to our self or to any worldly entity:

Here is the James verse in which we find the command to “submit yourselves, then, to God” in context:

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the Spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

‘God opposes the proud

But shows favor to the humble.’

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:1-8

We need to submit to God because we are sinners. 

And friendship with the world here is considered a detrimental thing because the world, in God’s context, is not a warm fuzzy: in fact, it is fallen (Even the hippie-era Coca Cola song recognizes this in its platitudinal desire to teach this unharmonious world “to sing, in perfect harmony.” I say, “good luck with that!”)

Think about it. If we cheat, it’s “okay”. 

But when someone else cheats, perhaps in a different way, or perhaps causing harm to me, then I’m appalled—but never at my own cheating. 

And if I do become disgusted with myself for a personal discretion, I make up some lame excuse such as “I’m only human” or, “I'll do better next time,” never taking accountability for our lapse.

God is the standard for all of our submission; that’s the incredible beauty and blessing of Biblical submission!

In His economy, when we all submit to Him, righteousness—His righteousness—reigns. 

It doesn’t mean we get our way when we Biblically submit. In fact, quite often we won’t get “our way” and that is a good thing, if it truly is Biblical submission to God—not to a pastor, a denomination or some person who sincerely believes he or she has a “word from God” but is sincerely wrong. 

That is why we are called by Scripture to “test everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

And we test it by Scripture and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, wrought in us through the reading of His word and living it out, in constant prayer and silent times of hearing God. This is what makes righteous submission an enjoyable interaction and pursuit.

So then, to submit to my husband, or any man, Biblically, is not a problem. Nor is it a character flaw on my part, or a denigration of my being a woman. 

It simply means I submit to a man no differently than I would submit to a female boss, friend, sister, or mother (even including a child, who is sometimes in the right when we are in the wrong).

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Ephesians 5:21). 
(Please note that this verse is connected to the words that come before it, which I will not provide here. I encourage you to read Ephesians 5:1-21 for this particular verse's full context).

Biblically, under submission to God and His will, is how I am to be in relationship with all people.

If there is one thing I could emblazon on a billboard for all the world to see it is this:

"Biblical submission will not be understood by man until the Spirit enters in and deciphers it for man. Only then will it make sense.”

Once so enlightened, we will turn red in our embarrassment over how worked up we had let ourselves get about submission.

I invite anyone to read James 4:1-8 and find it false—that it doesn’t depict our current situation.

I invite anyone to argue that going on in this world in the way the world is going on—with less and less submission to God, and increasingly less and less submission to even basic societal rules and politeness—in favor of an expanding heart-hardened submission to “individual rights,”—is better than submission to the Lord of lords and King of kings, who came for the sick (in mind, spirit, soul and body), not for the healthy (those who think they are in no need of a Savior—Luke 5:31; Mark 2:17; Matthew 9:12). 

Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10b).

He came to rescue us from those who steal us from life and from having it to the full (John 10:10). 

Jesus wept when people refused Him in order to go it alone:

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes’” (Luke 19:41-42).

Submission in the Spirit of Christ to God brings peace: in our selves, in our marriages, in our families, in our communities, in our cities, in our states, in our nations, and in our world. 

This--submission--is the wisdom of God, not man. 

Copyright Barb Harwood