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Sep 24, 2024 18:00pm

Letters to My Children: Submission to Authority

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To My Children:

Authority and submission to authority have always been a good thing. I know in our humanness we don’t like people telling us what to do—it feels restrictive; it feels like we have no control or say in our lives. But God says authority is good and good for us.

In fact, the first commandment with a promise of blessing involves submission: “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 5:16). When children obey their parents, they honor them by submitting to them. When you become an adult, you will not submit to your parents in the same way, but children of all ages can show respect to their parents even if they disagree with them or, at times, set aside their preferences for that of their parents.

God wants you to submit to your parents, not only because He says it is right (Ephesians 6:1) but also because He knows it is best for you and will bring you blessing in life.

Submission is not just for childhood, however; it is not something you must endure for a little while and then grow out of. When you are older, you will most likely have a boss. If you are your own boss, you will still have to submit to governing authorities and pay taxes. There are also police officers, mayors, and judges to submit to. If you try to tell your boss you’re not coming to work for a month because you don’t feel like it and you don’t like people telling you what to do, it will not go well for you. If you get pulled over and try to tell the police officer you don’t want to give them your license and registration because you have other things to do, it will not go well for you.

God gives you practice submitting to authority while you are a child so that, hopefully, you will have learned that submission to authority is good. I want you to learn that, too.

Authority was instituted by God. He put Adam and Eve in charge of all the animals and told them to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). He established Adam as the leader of the marriage and family and made that the pattern for humanity (Ephesians 5:23). Wives are to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18). Children are to obey their parents (Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20). Servants are to obey their masters, or employees their bosses (Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22). Citizens are supposed to be subject to governing authorities (Romans 13:1–4). The church is to submit to Christ (Ephesians 5:24). God is the sovereign authority over all His creation (Psalm 24:1).

Submission to authority is even modeled by the Trinity. Before the foundation of the world, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit knew God’s plan of redemption for humanity and their roles in it. Although each person of the Trinity is equally God and there is only one God, the Son willingly submitted to the Father by dying on the cross, and the Holy Spirit willingly submitted to the Father and the Son by coming to be our Helper when they sent Him.

God knows that if you submit to the authorities He has placed in your life, it will go well for you; He has placed them there for your good. I also want things to go well for you, so I am encouraging you to submit to the authorities God has for you; by doing so, you are also submitting to God. Submission to God always brings blessing, and rebellion against God only brings judgment and punishment, even if it is not immediate. The only time you would not submit to an authority is if they asked you to sin—in that case, you must obey God rather than man because God is the final authority in our lives (Acts 5:29).

I love you. Grow in godliness and in your love for God.