And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. – Philippians 2:8, KJV

Some years ago I worked for an employer with whom I regularly “butted heads.” After awhile, I realized that the reason there was frequent tension between us had nothing to do with the employer. It had everything to do with me. As the Bible teaches in Proverbs 13:10, only by pride cometh contention, and I harbored a lot of pride in the relationship. I have a natural bent to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I also have a natural desire to prove how right I am whenever I differ with other people regarding a matter. Both tendencies are character flaws, and they often prompt someone who is the designated follower – in this case me, the employee – to rebel against the one in authority – in this case, my employer. In short, I lacked submissiveness in our relationship. The more I learned how to be submissive, the smoother our relationship went. On those days when I let pride reign, however, you can surely guess what happened!

Our culture today tags “submissiveness,” which is the willingness to obey someone else, with the label of “weakness.” In reality, submissiveness is not weakness; it is strength. For example, submissiveness to authority is the glue that holds the strongest of Earth’s militaries together, and when soldiers whimsically stop obeying their orders, their military strength becomes like jelly. In addition, I dare anyone to claim that Moses, Peter, Paul, Elijah, and Joseph were weak people because they were submissive. Although they, like all humans, had moments of weakness, their lives were characterized by bold, strong action on behalf of God. It was their willingness to submit to God that enabled them to tap into the supernatural strength that only God can supply. Without submissiveness, these men would not have become the giants of the faith that we know them to be.

Next, Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Universe, has ultimate power over His creation. He can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it. However, He chose to submit to the will of God the Father, being obedient unto death so that you and I might be saved from an eternity in Hell. Due to His submissiveness, God the Son has the eternal power to save, a power as strong as any that God Almighty possesses.

Finally, in order to submit to someone else’s authority, we have to conquer one of the greatest of human foes: pride. It takes tremendous strength to defeat pride, and only the strongest, with the assistance of God’s supernatural enabling, can defeat this enemy. When we do defeat this enemy, submissiveness to authority is attainable, and through that submissiveness we can build strong, peaceful relationships with our God, our spouses, our parents, our teachers, our co-workers, and our friends.

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