Submission

Elizabeth Elliot Devotional

Title: What Do You Mean By Submission?

People are always asking me this. What is this
business of "submission" you're always talking
about? We're not really very comfortable with
this. Seems kinds of negative. Sounds as though
women are not worth as much as men. Aren't women
supposed to exercise their gifts? Can't they ever
open their mouths?

I wouldn't be very comfortable with that kind of
submission either. As a matter of fact, I'm not
particularly comfortable with any kind, but since
it was God's idea and not mine, I had better come
to terms with what the Bible says about it and
stop rejecting the whole thing just because it is
so often misunderstood and wrongly defined. I
came across a lucid example of what it means in 1
Chronicles 11:10, NEB: "Of David's heroes these
were the chief, men who lent their full strength
to his government and, with all Israel, joined in
making him king." There it is. The recognition,
first of all, of God-given authority. Recognizing
it, accepting it, they then lent their full
strength to it, and did everything in their power
to make him--not them--king.

Christians--both men and women--recognize first
the authority of Christ. They pray "Thy will be
done." They set about making an honest effort to
cooperate with what He is doing, straightening
out the kinks in their own lives according to His
wishes. A Christian woman, then, in submission to
God, recognizes the divinely assigned authority
of her husband (he didn't earn it, remember, he
received it by appointment!. She then sets about
lending her full strength to helping him do what
he's supposed to do, be what he's supposed to
be--her head. She's not always trying to get her
own way. She's trying to make it easier for him
to do his job. She seeks to contribute to his
purpose, not to scheme how to accomplish her own.


If this sounds suspiciously like some worn-out
traditionalist view, or (worse) like a typical
Elisabeth Elliot opinion, test it with the
straightedge of Scripture. What does submission
to Christ mean? "Wives, submit yourself to your
husbands, as to the Lord." Compare and connect.