Summary
Submit to One Another
In Ephesians 5:18-21, Paul contrasts being "drunk with wine" — under the control and influence of alcohol — with being "filled with the Spirit." He then describes what Spirit-filled life looks like through three participles: singing, giving thanks, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Submission, in other words, is not first a matter of willpower or social arrangement; it is a fruit that grows when the Holy Spirit is the controlling influence of a believer's life.
To submit here means to count the other as more important than yourself. That definition is not abstract — it is embodied in Jesus. In John 13, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, He nevertheless took the towel of the lowliest slave and washed His disciples' feet. In Philippians 2, though He was in the form of God, He emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and humbled Himself unto death on a cross. And in Mark 10:43-45, He teaches that true greatness is rooted in service: the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Greatness flows from service, and service is born of submission.
Honest reflection shows how foreign this is to our natural disposition. Peter's threefold denial in Matthew 26 is a sober mirror: when pressed, he refused to count those around him as worthy of his witness, and he refused to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. Most of us could name three such failures from this past week alone. Yet the very One who girded Himself with the towel, who took the form of a slave, who defined greatness as service — He went to the cross bearing every sin of our unsubmissive hearts. By the blood of the cross He forgives, and by His grace He recreates us from the inside out into people who submit. We will fall short this side of heaven, but God is genuinely at work producing this fruit in us.
Notice that Paul roots this submission in worship: "out of reverence for Christ." Spirit-produced submission is itself an act of adoration. The fuel source is not gritted teeth but the indwelling Spirit, and so the submission Paul calls for is the natural overflow of being filled with Him. To press the point home, Paul gives three concrete examples of what this mutual submission looks like in everyday life.
First, husbands and wives Ephesians 5:22-33. Wives submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and husbands love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. There is no greater picture of submission than that agape love which counts the other as more important and lays itself down. This bowing toward one another in mutual service is the opposite of the way of the world, and out of it grows the unity God desires for marriage.
Second, children and parents Ephesians 6:1-4. Children submit by obeying their parents in the Lord. But parents also submit to their children — not by abdicating their God-given role, but by serving them: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." When parents set aside competing priorities to disciple their children, they are counting them as more important than themselves.
Third, masters and slaves Ephesians 6:5-9. Servants render wholehearted service as to the Lord, and masters in turn are to "do the same to them" and stop threatening, knowing that both share the same Master in heaven who shows no partiality. Even within this hierarchical relationship, the gospel reshapes both parties to count the other as more important.
The closing question is a personal one: who is it today that you can submit to? Who, by the Spirit's power and out of reverence for Christ, can you count as more important than yourself? Three examples will likely come to mind before the day is over.
Video citations
- "Submit to One Another" 2-5-23 — Would you open your Bibles please with me to the book of Ephesians the 5th chapter for our study today page 172 Ephesians the 5th chapter? It is called the rule of three, the rule of three. The rule…