#DailyDevotion Christian, Submit To Your Fellow Christians Out Of Love For Christ
Eph. 5:21 21 As you respect Christ, submit to one another.
Kind of short, I know. But boy is it full of meaning. Paul spends the rest of the chapter and the beginning of the next to explain what it means in different vocations. What can this mean? Jesus told us, “The Son of Man did not come to be serve but to serve.” In one parable he says of how at the end of the ages he will have us recline at the table and serve us. In the upper room Jesus indeed has his disciple recline as he takes off his outer garment, washes his disciples’ feet and then gives them and to us, his body and blood of the New Testament. Paul would in another epistle to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus who humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross.
If this is how Christ Jesus humbles himself to serve us, as we respect Christ, we should submit to one another. Paul tells us throughout his letters to do this. In Romans he tells us to treat others as having more honor than ourselves. In another place he tells us to think of others first and not ourselves. We are to be about seeking how we can serve our fellow Christians as Christ served us. That is the new commandment he gave us in the upper room.
Now Paul here in Ephesians would describe this in different vocations and relationships. So to wives he tells them to submit and obey their husbands as unto the LORD and to show them respect. Not because they are less than their husbands but co-heirs with them in the LORD.
To Husbands, Paul tells them to submit to their wives by loving them as Christ loved the Church. They are to put their wives interest above their owns even as Christ sacrificed himself for the good of the Church. They are to sacrifice themselves for the good of their wives. As Christ and the Church are one body so too husbands and wives are one body. Loving your wife is loving yourself.
Children are to obey their parents and parents are to not exasperate their children. Is this not a reflection of the Father’s relationship to us his children? Indeed as Christian parents act so too children’s expectations of God the Father are formed by how their parents love them.
Employees are called to work as working for the LORD. They should do their best for their employers, even when they are not looking so as to bear witness to the LORD who is their master, even if their employer is not a fellow Christian. Employers who are Christian should remember they too have a master, the LORD Jesus Christ and should treat their employees with dignity and respect, paying them what is due.
In these and other relationships with other Christians we are always to keep in mind the service our LORD Jesus Christ provided us on the cross and seek to emulate his humility to our fellow members in the body of Christ.
Heavenly Father, we confess we often think of ourselves ahead of others. Give us your Holy Spirit that we may have faith in Christ’s service to us so we may in live in service to our fellow Christians placing their needs above our own. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.