Why do so many people hate the biblical idea of submission? Perhaps because authority can be awful. If you have suffered under the abusive authority of a corrupt government, a monstrous husband, or a pastor with selfish motives, I can understand how triggering the passages on submission must be.
But—can we be honest?—much of the time the real problem is not a dictator or an abuser or a pastor who is a monster. The problem is that we just don’t want to submit. Paul explained, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:7). The flesh is that selfish part of us. When it governs our minds, it never hits the brakes. It does not submit to what God says. It cannot.
Isn’t that often the real issue? You would submit to God, but he tells you to be nice to the most annoying person you know. You would submit to the government, but they tell you to report all your income. You would submit to your husband or your pastor, but they aren’t using their God-given authority to do what you want.
One of the vital purposes of God’s commands is to help us see our own sin. As painful as the call to submit can be, we can be thankful that it immediately exposes the ugliest part of us, prompting us to repent and pointing us to Jesus as our only hope of salvation.
