Adorning The Gospel: Submission in the Church, Workplace, and Community
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach….Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
-Titus 1:10-11,13b-16, ESV
When we think of dysfunctional churches in the New Testament, Corinth immediately comes to mind, but Crete may have been just as bad. Paul left Titus on Crete for the purpose of bringing order to the churches there (Titus 1:5). Many of those issues came from people who are described first as insubordinate, so submission is an important theme in Paul’s letter to Titus. This post will define submission and examine it in the church, workplace, and society, while the next two will cover submission in the home.
What is Submission?
First, let’s define submission. The Greek term means “to rank under”. I describe this in more detail in my leadership paper, noting how it is willful and selective. Based on Philippians 2:3-4 it means choosing to live sacrificially by putting the needs of others and their ultimate good ahead of ourselves motivated by a healthy fear of God and following the example of Christ. In this way, anyone can submit to anyone else regardless of position (Ephesians 5:21). There is submission within the Godhead (1 Corinthians 15:28), so submission implies no inferiority. But in most cases it involves hierarchy:
Every society has relationships of difference: husband-wife, parent-child, customer-merchant, employer-employee, teacher-student, magistrate-citizen, elders-youth, pastor-congregation. Within a given society, there is a kind of family resemblance in all of these different relationships. There is a quality, an atmosphere, a common thread, that integrates and ties all of these various relationships together. This is Degree (with a capital D). It’s the bond or glue that keeps people separate but connected, distinct yet related. It’s the cadence that regulates a culture’s rhythms and seasons, its offices and customs, its sense of propriety and justice….By binding different people together, Degree preserves order while allowing for change and transition. But in the absence of Degree, envy and rivalry are cataclysmically released until total antagonism reduces us to appetite and self-devouring.
Joe Rigney, Leadership and Emotional Sabotage: Resisting the Anxiety That Will Wreck Your Family, Destroy Your Church, and Ruin the World, Moscow, ID: Canon Press: 2024: 16,19
Within these good and necessary hierarchies, subordinates affirm that God placed their superiors in their positions and gives them the requisite authority so that they can obey Him in fulfilling the responsibilities of those positions (Romans 13:1). Therefore, submission involves honor and obedience. Respect is owed to those in certain positions (Romans 13:7) just as it is owed to every person by virtue of being made in the image of God, so this type of respect cannot be earned or lost. Also, those in higher positions are God’s servants—whether they acknowledge that or not—so to disobey them is to disobey God. Therefore, submission also requires obedience as long as that obedience does not disobey Scripture.
At this point, many people balk at submission. Many would be fine with our definition of submission. Fewer would go along with unconditionally respecting someone who occupies a certain position. But most would consider complete obedience based solely on position to be a bridge too far. We seem to think that obedience can be on our terms and must be earned, but that is not what we see in Scripture. Instead, all who are under the authority of someone holding a particular position must obey that person unless obedience is sinful. More importantly, our submission is a crucial witness to the world: “Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:9-10). Paul says the submissive and well-pleasing people beautifully adorn the Gospel while the dishonest and argumentative people make the Gospel appear ugly. This is true of submission in the church, home, workplace, and community. God has appointed leaders in each of these arenas: elders, heads of households, employers, and civil leaders. Each has authority over a certain sphere, so all under them must submit to, honor, and obey them as far as their authority stretches. Theologians like John Calvin have long understood this as the broader meaning of the fifth commandment, so honoring parents extends to honoring all whom God has placed in authority over us.[1] The Westminster Larger Catechism spells this out, giving us a good picture of submission by addressing “inferiors” (i.e. subordinates):
The honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior; prayer and thanksgiving for them; imitation of their virtues and graces; willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels; due submission to their corrections; fidelity to, defense and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places; bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government. The sins of inferiors against their superiors are, all neglect of the duties required toward them; envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against, their persons and places, in their lawful counsels, commands, and corrections; cursing, mocking, and all such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and dishonor to them and their government.
-Westminster Larger Catechism, Questions 127 and 128
It is important to note that submission does not require passivity, blind following, silence without objection, or resignation to abuse. Submission is about ultimate good, which sometimes requires the follower to wisely and respectfully disagreewith the leader. And as we saw recently, turning the other cheek is a strategic act in pursuit of peace not a requirement to endure abuse. Plus, since all authority comes from God and no one has the authority to sin, abusers are inherently acting outside of their authority. An abusive pastor violates the qualifications of an elder (1 Timothy 3:1-7, 2 Timothy 2:24, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-4), so he should be removed from the pulpit. An abusive husband is violating God’s command to sacrificially love his wife without harshness (Ephesians 5:24-33, Colossians 3:19, 1 Peter 3:7) and is therefore unfaithful, so if he does not repent divorce is appropriate. An abusive boss is acting outside of his or her authority by violating God’s command against threatening employees (Ephesians 6:9), so it is appropriate for those employees to take appropriate action by leaving, reporting, or even suing in extreme cases. Abusive government leaders are acting outside of their authority by violating God’s command that they reward good and punish evil (Romans 13:3-4, 1 Peter 2:14), so it is appropriate to seek their removal—but only through legal means that accord with Scripture, such as according to the Constitution for those of us in the United States. All of these are part of submission, since submission seeks ultimate good over our own desires. With that, we will now look at Paul’s exhortations to Titus about submission.
Submission in the Church
Paul first addressed submission in the church by telling Titus to appoint elders in large part to silence the insubordinate liars teaching legalism and prosperity theology. These hypocrites claimed to know God but denied Him by their works, so Paul calls them “detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work”. Similar language to Timothy suggests that other churches struggled with this problem too. Crete may have had a power vacuum that these false teachers filled, so appointing elders would have done a great deal to silence them. But Timothy required a different approach in the well-established church of Ephesus, so Paul tells him: “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17). When discussing tithing, we noted that this includes adequately compensating our pastors, but it also means honoring and obeying them. Our pastors have a high calling with immense responsibility for our souls, so they have very real authority over us. To disobey them is therefore disobeying God unless they are telling us to disobey Scripture. This can put elders and families in conflict with one another, since there is some overlap in the authority of elders and heads of households. We previously addressed this, so all I will say here is that in such conflict families must acknowledge and honor the authority of the elders and vice versa. Even when elders are straying, faithful people can correct them or remove them in a way that benefits the church. Far worse is when people stir up division in the church. In addition to destroying Christ’s Body, divisive people make the church odious to the outside world and insult Christ Himself, but so do all who do not submit to the church’s elders. We must all be careful to honor our elders and make their work a joy and not a burden (Hebrews 13:17). When we do differ on matters of conscience, like baptism, the nature and recipients of communion, worship song selection, and a myriad of other topics, we must work through them in a way that avoids being divisive. The good of the church is far more important than getting our way. The elders are charged by God with leading the church according to Scripture, and we owe them honor and obedience whether we agree with them on secondary doctrines or not. In our day, many Christians feel no obligation to submit to their elders or even commit to a church, but it is unbiblical to live life outside of the context of the local church. And since the elders are charged with keeping watch over our souls, we must submit to their authority over our lives as Christians. We cannot love Jesus if we do not love the church that He loves, and we cannot love the church if we do not submit to its elders.
Submission in the Workplace
Paul similarly commands submission in the workplace. While our society no longer practices slavery, Paul’s command translates directly to our modern workplaces: “Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:9-10). Peter gives a similar command: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly” (1 Peter 2:18-19). He then gives the example of Christ suffering unjustly (1 Peter 2:21-25), so when slaves endured suffering from harsh masters, they were reflecting Christ and thereby adorning the Gospel. Regardless of the master, slaves adorned the Gospel by being obedient, diligent, and honest:
Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.
-1 Timothy 6:1-2, ESV
Despite the differences between slavery and our employer-employee relationship, the exhortation to submission is the same. We need to submit to our bosses and strive to be honest, well-pleasing, and not argumentative. In an age where “quiet quitting” and doing the bare minimum are prevalent, it is all the more vital for Christians to build a reputation of being the best workers. We should be the ones putting in the extra effort, taking care of the work and the people around us. We should show an appropriate level of respect and obedience to our bosses. Part of this is trying to understand their reasoning and the pressures they are under. Being a supervisor is very challenging, so a bit of empathy goes a long way—even with a toxic boss. And we should be known for our honesty, refusing to steal anything from our employers (including time through laziness), reflecting our Heavenly Father and Savior who are always working (John 5:17). Then even if our bosses vehemently oppose the Gospel, they can’t argue with the results. As we work diligently and seek to do what is best for the organization, they will most likely come to view us as indispensable. Then when we must ask for accommodations—such as not working Sundays, abstaining from “Pride Month” events, or not using preferred pronouns—our bosses will be much more willing to go above and beyond to support us. This is how we adorn the Gospel by our submission in the workplace, which is a great witness to the people we spend most of our time around.
Submission in the Community
God has placed leaders over us in various levels of government as well. These too have been given specific responsibilities and the requisite authority by God, so we owe submission to them. Paul tells Titus: “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:1-2). Specifically, they are God’s servants to reward good and punish evil. In this way, they are often used as instruments of God’s wrath like Nebuchadnezzar or blessing like like Cyrus. Scripture is clear that we must obey them and honor them as long as it does not contradict Scripture. This includes obeying the law, paying taxes, and giving due respect to the position those people occupy (Romans 13:1-7). When their edicts contradict Scripture, we must respectfully refrain from following them. It is appropriate to show reverence to our leaders, but it is inappropriate to do anything that could be construed as worshipping them. In our day both the Left and Right have a tendency to deify their leaders and demonize their opponents, but we as Christians must reject this. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were faithful in their duties and loyal servants of Nebuchadnezzar, but they served God first and foremost and therefore refused to commit idolatry by bowing before his statue (Daniel 3). Likewise, when the Jewish leaders told the apostles not to preach the Gospel, they responded that they had to obey God rather than men (Acts 4:18-20). But both stories also remind us that whenever we must disobey, we have to be prepared to face the consequences. There are many examples of situations in which we may need to disobey civil authorities to avoid sinning. The pandemic was full of them, such as draconian lockdowns keeping churches from properly worshipping God. But even when we must peacefully and respectfully disobey, we should set a pattern of submission as good citizens so that others will have nothing bad to say about us (Titus 2:8). Submission means seeking ultimate good, which includes seeking the ultimate good of our society. God has determined the time and place in which we live (Acts 17:26) and calls us to impact those around us for the Gospel:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare….For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
-Jeremiah 29:5-8,11-13, ESV
This was written to the Jewish exiles who thought they would return quickly to Jerusalem. Instead, God tells them to establish roots in Babylon and seek its welfare, wherein they would find their own welfare. That is the context of the most misapplied verse in Scripture: God’s plan to prosper His people in Babylon—and by extension His people in any godless society—is by blessing us within our context and over many generations impacting our culture with the Gospel. Therefore, we should be known for seeking the ultimate good of our society. Finally seeking the welfare of our society will involve God calling some to serve in government. We often pray that God would give us good leaders, but He may call some of us to answer that prayer. Recall that Joseph, Daniel and his friends, Nehemiah, and Mordecai were all senior officials in pagan governments who served faithfully and sought the welfare of their nations.
This is the type of submission that adorns the Gospel in our churches, workplaces, and communities. The next two posts will address submission within the family, first within marriage then in the relationship between children and parents.
NOTES:
[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Translated from the First French Edition of 1541 by Robert White, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2014: 145-148.
