Submission - Spiritual Leaders
Scripture Reading - Hebrews 13:17 KJV
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
Today’s lesson will continue to speak on “submission”. We started with the highest level of “submission” which is “submission to God”. We looked at “submission to those in authority” over the land highlighting the fact that “submission” is not stating agreement but a respectful attitude about those in authority over you. In this lesson we will briefly review “submission” to the “spiritual leaders” in your life. One would naturally think about your pastor and that is correct. However, this reference verse is not only speaking about pastors but it is including bishops, elders, deacons, apostles, evangelist, etc…that might be (or are) over you in Christ, that is the key. Essentially if your Sunday school teacher is asking for everyone in the class to go out and be neighborly everyday next week all the students should obey their instructions and “submit inwardly” to the teachers position of leadership in the church. Please notice that today’s reference verse starts out with the instruction to “obey them that have the rule over you” this means that anyone on the leadership team who is over you should be able to request your cooperation for a specific task they have on their heart. This can work because the context infers that they know you and they pray for you on a regular basis because the term “they must give account” in our interpretation is speaking about God and man. Yes, during times of prayer when certain people we are over come to mind we give account unto God by requesting The Lord’s blessing and divine intervention when the believer is in need of help. However, we (ihlcc) can boldly say almost all leaders have another leader over them that they report up to. What this means is if the first level leader is asked a question about a certain individual by their second level leader (the leader’s boss) they must answer any questions about the certain individual in “obedience and complete submission” to their own boss. In an example of this is when a senior (more experienced) pastor is looking for (seeking) a new pastor and they (the senior pastor) has someone in mind that serves under an associate pastor. Quite often the senior pastor will ask for the associate pastor to give him an account of the individual’s performance they are interested in. Now, if the certain individual believes in “heart felt godly submission” the report (account statement) shall be favorable to the senior pastor. However, if the certain individual has a negative attitude and doesn’t completely believe in “submission” to spiritual leaders because they believe each person has the right by God to do whatever they want the report (account statement) back to the senior pastor should be unfavorable (negative) which basically means they are unfit for leadership. Why, because the older we become the more we understand the importance of “godly submission”. Yes, everything starts with the Father God, Jesus is “totally submitted” to God the Father. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is “totally submitted” to both Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Holy Spirit does not “submit” to one or the other but He remains committed to “submission” to both the Heavenly Father and His Precious Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. We have learned that this is why the God Head trinity is One in “perfect submission” according to 1 John 5:7. It is imperative that all leaders understand that they have multiple bosses that are all worthy of “submission” because they all watch for your souls. For example many times we (ihlcc) believe we are receiving instruction from God so we test the instruction with the Word of God, the Love of God and each other. If all the test come back positive for God we obey the instruction but we don’t always know if it came directly from the Father God or Jesus Christ or the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit and you know what it really doesn’t matter because they are all one voice and we (ihlcc) are “submitted” to all three. Likewise, all churches have some form of government in the sense of leadership. Quite often the ushers reports to a certain pastor, the greeters report up to a specific pastor and the teachers also report up a at least one pastor. This means that if the usher ask you to take a certain seat, please “submit” because his usher captain has asked him to assign a certain section of seats. That assignment could have come from a church elder (or deacon) which perhaps was given to them by an associate pastor which received it directly from the Senior Pastor. We hope you can see what we are saying. “Submission” to just one person or just one position is almost impossible in the church and that is why many leaders in the church won’t hesitate to ask a member in the church to help them with a particular need of the church. So if you can “obey and submit” for the betterment of your church that would be good. The reason we (ihlcc) say, “If you can?”, is because we don’t think it is God’s intention that any leader of the church can just snap their finger and point to you with the words jump because I need your help and you respond by saying, Yes pastor and how high? No, we (leaders) are not supposed to lord over God’s heritage but according to 1 Peter 5:3 we are to lead by example which basically means it is still God’s Church both spiritually and physically. Therefore, whatever you are asked to do by man (especially church leadership) should always be presented to God in prayer and meditation with your own heart first to determine if the assignment is ordained by God for you specifically. If yes, gladly accept the task but if a clear “no” in your heart comes up (lacking peace or assurance or you are already doing too much) humbly and politely decline the request. One little side note from ihlcc that has huge impact is knowing that the scripture typically (generally) speaks as if all God’s Children are doing what is right because God is extremely optimistic when it comes to the potential of His Children but man doesn’t always do things God’s Way so we must caution everyone blind “obedience and submission” to any person based upon their title (position) is a problem both in the church and outside of the church so rely on godly wisdom by knowing both their heart, your heart and most importantly God’s Heart because at the end of the day “submitting” to those in authority over you in church is definitely God’s Will (His Word) but God’s Will of doing all things in love must be obeyed also for God’s complete will to be established upon the earth inside His Local Church we are sure you do agree. Amen!