1 Peter 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Introduction
One of the things you hope for when thinking up a title for a sermon is something that will catch people’s eye, so that if they are looking through a list and see it and say, “Wow, I want to listen to that sermon.” The other main purpose of a title is something that clearly and accurately reflects the main point of the sermon. There is no way I could do both of those for today’s sermon, because the title that accurately reflects the topic is, “The Submissive Church.” That tells you what it is about, but as far as arousing interest - if we ever get a sermon that gets zero hits online, this might be the one. I have never in my life had anyone ask me to preach on the subject of the submissive church. I have never seen a book on it. And I am not anticipating anyone will put this one on their Darrell Ferguson’s greatest hits list. I have met some people who are obsessed with the study of the end times. I know some who have Calvinism as a hobby horse. I know some who only want to talk about apologetics. I do not know anyone who specializes in the area of submissiveness to authority. Our culture hates the concept of submissiveness to authority, and that attitude has affected the Church.
Have you ever heard that saying, “Six billion people can’t be wrong?” Yes, they can.
Romans 3:4 Let God be true and every man a liar.
If every single person in the world says one thing, and God says the opposite, God is right. And God tells us in His Word that submissiveness to God-ordained authority is good and beneficial to us and pleasing to Him. And so He has designed this world to be run by intermediate, human authorities. And that system of having human authorities who are sinful and many times foolish, and then calling His people to submit to their authority – that is a good system. That system is better than the alternative, which is each person deciding on his own what he or she thinks is best. That is the system we naturally prefer. But God’s system is so much better, there is a whole book in the Bible designed, in large measure, to show us how much better His system is. It is the book of Judges. In that book, the nation of Israel alternates between the two systems. First everyone does what is right in his own eyes, that leads to disaster, then God rescues them from that disaster through His system using a fallible, sinful, human authority. And just to drive the point home, God chooses especially fallible leaders. During that time there are some terrible leaders (like Samson). And yet, the situation is far better when those leaders are in power than when everyone is just doing what is right in their own eyes. Even under King Saul the people were much, much better off than when they all did what they thought was best.
This is not the first time Peter has brought up the topic of submission.
1 Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men
We are to submit to authorities – even secular authorities. Why? For the Lord’s sake. It is not a complicated principle. It is very simple – it is God’s authority delegated to people. If you are leaving for a little bit, and you point to your oldest child and say to the rest of your kids, “He’s in charge until I get back – I want you to do what he says.” – if they refuse to listen to him while you are gone, they are disobeying you. If you tell your kids, “Listen to the Sunday school teacher and do what she says,” and you find out they were rebellious and disobedient, you discipline them the same way as if they disobeyed you, because they did disobey you. God places us under fellow sinners as our authorities, and then tells us to obey them, and the test of how much we trust God is in whether we will gladly, joyfully submit to them knowing it is His will.
Romans 13:1 ...the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ... 4 [the one in authority] is God's servant for your good.
They are sinners, they are often foolish, they make mistakes, but still, they are God’s servants for your good. In the case of unbelievers, they don’t know they are God’s servants, but that does not prevent God from using them as His servants. God will bring you to where He wants you to be through human leaders even if those leaders are fools. If they are fools – God will simply use their foolishness to get you where He wants you to be.
So this is really one of those areas that test our faith. Do we really trust God? Do we trust Him to lead us through the means He has ordained? When God points us in a direction and says, “That way is best,” will we believe Him?
Who Must Submit?
In the first four verses of chapter 5, Peter has been speaking to the elders in the church. And now in verse 5 he switches to a different group.
1 Peter 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to the elders.
So now he is addressing the young men. Actually, the word “men” is not in the Greek. It is possible to translate it that way, but it is just one word - “the youngers.” First he spoke to the elders, now the youngers. And his message to the youngers is, “Submit to the elders.” The NIV says those who are older – but it is the exact same word translated elders in verse 1.
Young Men?
So who are these “youngers”? Is Peter suddenly talking about chronological age? That is possible. It could be that Peter wants to give a special word here to the young men. There is often a tendency for young men to have a sense of independence. They feel they have it all figured out, and they develop disdain toward the washed-up, traditional old fogies. It is not uncommon for young men to get some theological training, but not enough life experience to know how much they still do not know. And so it seems to them that they know better than the old guys. And on top of that, they are concerned about establishing their manhood. They don’t want to be thought of as boys anymore, so they don’t want to do anything that seems to them like a child’s role, and being submissive to authority seems very much like a child’s role, so they resist that. So it would not be any shock if Peter took a verse just to say to the young men in the congregation, “Hey, you guys need to submit to the elders.”
The Whole Congregation
However, there is another possibility. Some scholars have argued that the term “youngers” is just the counterpart to “elders” referring to everyone else in the church who is not an elder. The word is used that way in other places and I am convinced that is the way Peter intended it here. I believe Peter’s message is this: Elders, do not lead by forcing people to do what you want, but rather lead by example. And congregation, be submissive to that leadership. And that explains why verse 4 starts with In the same way. First he calls for the elders to take a humble, gracious approach toward those under them, and in the same way, the congregation is to have a humble, submissive attitude toward the leaders, which is why he summarizes all of it at the end of verse 5 by saying:
5 ... all of you (elders and youngers – leaders and congregation) clothe yourself with humility toward one another
Humility in the leadership looks like leading through example rather than lording it over, and humility in the congregation looks like submitting to the authority of the leaders.
Submit to What? The Extent of Pastoral Authority
Now, as I said before, that is not a popular message. Whether you take this as referring specifically to young men, or about the whole congregation, either way it is clear Peter is calling for submission to the elders. And we live in a culture that just has an allergic reaction to the concept of submitting to authority. Have you ever in your life heard any congregation be described as submissive? I have heard people describe their church in a lot of ways - both positive and negative, but I have never heard anyone describe any church as being submissive. It is commanded in Scripture, but I have never heard of a church that has that as a goal.
But if we were to make it our goal, what would it look like exactly? What is it that we are to submit to? What are the parameters of pastoral authority? That is an important question, because only God’s authority is absolute. All authorities under Him have certain delegated areas where their authority extends, and no further. A police officer can require you to follow traffic laws, but he can’t tell you what clothes you have to wear or what time you have to go to bed. Your boss can tell you what time you have to start work in the morning, but he cannot put restrictions on what you watch on TV. His authority is limited to work. If he tries to make you conform to rules outside of that realm, he has overstepped his authority. But on the other hand, if he fails to lead within his realm of authority, then he is guilty of abdicating authority, and he is derelict in his duty. If he is responsible for overseeing staff and he just lets employees do whatever they want, the next thing you know everyone else is not showing up for work until noon, and you are there on time and having to do everyone else’s job because the boss has not exercised the authority that he is supposed to exercise. So it is important that we know the parameters of pastoral authority for two reasons. First, so that we do not over-extend it into areas where pastors are not supposed to have authority. And second, so we do not become derelict by failing to lead in areas where we are responsible to lead.
Not Over Individuals
So, what is the elder’s area of authority? Do we have authority over people’s individual lives? No. It is not our business to tell you what car to drive or what food to eat or what job to take or anything like that. It is definitely our job to tell you what God’s Word says about those things, and to advise you on how to apply God’s Word in specific situations, but it is not the elder’s role to require you to chose one way or another in areas of Christian freedom. That is beyond the realm of our authority.
Not Free From God’s Word
Another restriction is this – elders do not have authority to do anything contrary to Scripture. And they are never at liberty to knowingly depart from the way God is guiding. Elders are not free to disobey God in any way. Anything outside of God’s will is out of our realm of authority.
Administration of the Local Body
So what is our realm? Some would say our only authority is teaching Scripture. That is, you only have to obey your elders when they are telling you something the Bible says. So if they say, “Thou shalt not murder,” then you must submit to that because it is in the Bible. The problem with that is that it is true of everyone. If anyone comes to you and says “Thou shalt not murder” you have to submit to that, even if it is a 5-year-old kid. If I preach something God said and you obey it, you are not obeying me. You are obeying Scripture.
So what is the realm where elders have authority that must be submitted to? The answer to that is revealed by the terms that God chose to describe the office - shepherd, elder, and overseer. Shepherds are in charge of the flock. Elder and overseer were terms that were used to describe people who made decisions for the organization, appointed leaders, paid salaries, and presided over the functions of the organization they were overseeing. Our realm of authority is not your personal life – it is simply the administrative functioning of the local body where he serves.
Restricted to the Local Assembly
It does not even extend to other churches. Look back at verse 1.
1 To the elders among you, I appeal
The only elders who have authority over you are the elders among you - the elders of your particular local body. And in the Greek, verse 2 has the exact same phrase.
2 Shepherd God's flock among you
3 not lording it over those entrusted to you
Our oversight is only over a certain group of people who have been entrusted or allotted to our oversight. I mention that because sometimes people get so carried away with the fact that there is one, unified, world-wide, universal Church that they forget that God’s Word also recognizes the validity of the individual fellowships. Sometimes in the Bible you see the word churches (plural), which shows that God does regard the individual assemblies as entities of their own. And both leaders and non-leaders have responsibilities within that local fellowship. It is not a biblical approach to just wander from church to church – sometimes attend one place, other times another, floating in and out. God calls you to serve a particular body, and in this case, to submit to a particular group of elders.
Administration
The realm of the elders’ authority is the administrative functions and decision-making in the congregation where they serve. And within that narrow realm, elders have full authority. There are no areas of restriction within that realm. There is no category where the Bible says, “This area is off limits for the elders.” Never does the Bible say, “When it comes to the finances, the elders are not in charge of that.” Or, “When it comes to appointing leaders,” or, “decisions that affect everybody,” or anything like that. Within the boundaries of the Word of God, the decision-making within the local assembly is the responsibility of the elders. So if the elders decide the worship service is going to be 90 minutes rather than 60, that is their call. They are the ones responsible for decisions involving how and when the meetings take place, how the money is spent, what happens with the facility, the music, what ministries the church will have and how they will be run, appointment of leaders, policies, rules, procedures, direction - all the various kinds of decisions that must be made for the organization to run.
God is not a god of confusion, but of order, and in order for a group of people to function in an organized way, someone has to make some decisions. If we are going to have a prayer meeting, someone has to decide if it is going to be Saturday morning or Friday night. Otherwise no one will know when to come. And it is the overseers who bear responsibility for all those decisions.
We live in a culture that worships at the shrine of democracy, and so very often people want to import that into the church, so the decisions of the elders can be overturned by the higher authority of the congregation. But that is not biblical. Nowhere does the Bible give the congregation or anyone else authority over the elders in administrative decision-making.
Delegation
Now, does that mean the elders personally make all those decisions? Of course not. That would be impossible. A person in authority who insists on making every decision himself is a terrible leader. All leaders delegate decisions. However, even when you delegate, you are still the one responsible for what is decided. If things go bad you cannot point to the person you delegated it to and say, “It’s not my fault!” Elders have both authority and responsibility for all the decisions made in the church ministry. And God calls the congregation to submit to that.
What Is Submission?
So what does that look like? Is it just going along with what they decide? If they decide the meeting will be at 9:00, then submission means showing up at 9:00 and not 8:00? Or is there more to it than that? Is it only a function of your actions? Or does it extend to attitudes?
Alignment
The Greek word translated submit is hupotasso.
tasso - to arrange or line up
hupo - under
So hupotasso literally means to line up under. It is a word picture that gives the sense of aligning yourself with the one in authority.
This is the same word used for wives submitting to husbands as well, so you wives can apply these same principles in your marriage. Sometimes a woman will say, “I always do whatever he says to do, therefore I’m a submissive wife.” If you always do what your husband says, that might make you an obedient wife, but not necessarily a submissive wife. You can do what someone tells you to do without aligning your heart with that person. You knuckle under to what he commands, but in your attitudes and your words and everything else you do, you are pushing in a very different direction than he is trying to lead in. To align yourself with the one in authority means to go the same direction. The modern phrase for that idea is being “on board.” We all know what it is like when someone does what the leader says to do, but they are not on board. They are not behind it. They do what they have to do, but they are not doing what they can to further the effort. In fact in many subtle ways they might be resisting the effort.
Alignment of Attitudes
Submission starts not with actions, but with attitudes. As much as possible, strive to align your attitudes with the direction being set by the ones in authority. Do not be like the little kid whose dad told him to sit down, and he said, “I’m sitting on the outside, but I’m standing on the inside.” If everyone in the church is pulling in their own direction we will go nowhere. Whatever you do, someone else will be pulling in the opposite direction and everyone’s work will be thwarted. If you have the three fastest athletes in the world, and you tie them together with a rope, I don’t care how fast they can run - they will get nowhere unless they all agree on one direction to run.
When we used to train guides for whitewater rafting, the first several times the trainee would actually be the one calling the commands and the crew would be made up of experienced guides. We did not give them customers until they had proven a certain level of skill. And that first run, they were never very good. They made very poor decisions and took terrible lines through the rapids. So what did the experienced guides do? We obeyed their commands. In fact, we obeyed them all the more. The trainee decides he is going to go right of that big rock, and all of us experienced guides can see that the currents are pushing left. So what do we do? If half of us decide, “Left is better - I’m going to paddle in that direction” and the rest follow the guide, what happens? We wrap around the rock and everybody goes swimming. So when the trainee points the boat to the right and calls “Forward,” we all dig in twice as hard because we know that is what it is going to take to make this bad line he is taking work. If we don’t paddle really, really hard, we will not make it, because it is a bad line.
That is just a general principle in leadership. Everyone following a poor direction will be more successful than everyone just doing what he or she feels is best. That is not to say you follow if the leader goes in a sinful direction. You do not ever follow a leader into sin. But if you can follow without sinning, follow. And if it is not the best direction, then paddle all the harder because it is going to take a great effort to have success even when the leader is taking a bad line.
Alignment of Words
So, it starts with attitudes. If your heart is not in it, it is not submission. The next place to look is at your words. Jesus said you can always tell what is in the heart by what comes out of the mouth (Mt.12:34). Those times when the leaders at Agape (or any other authority in your life) take a line through the rapids that you think is a bad line, what comes out of your mouth? When they make a decision that is different from what you would have decided, and you are alone with your friends, what do you say? Do you grumble? Do you gossip? Are your words supportive, or do your words pull in a different direction?
This is an area that is very convicting to me. I have to constantly work on this, because I am one of those people who has developed a horrible habit of thinking every decision the authorities make needs my commentary. They are doing road construction, and I drive along with no expertise in road construction, no knowledge of the situation, no responsibility in that area at all, and I make my little 10-second observation and then out comes the commentary.
“Why do they have these cones set up here? That’s stupid - it doesn’t make any sense. They make us slow down and there isn’t even any work being done here. This project is taking way too long. And why are they doing it during rush hour?”
Is that a submissive heart? No, it is grumbling. And God hates grumbling. God has put people to death for grumbling - thousands of people. The nation of Israel followed Moses out of Egypt, but while following him they grumbled, and so God killed 14,700 of them for the sin of grumbling. Ephesians 4 teaches us to speak only words that are edifying and that build people up and meet their spiritual needs. Who is edified by grumbling? What does it accomplish? Have you ever accomplished some wonderful thing and looked back and said, “It’s a good thing I grumbled. This all happened through grumbling”? No. The only thing it accomplishes is it bogs down the progress of the church, discourages the people who hear it, causes many of them to start paddling in the opposite direction, grieves the Holy Spirit, and provokes God’s wrath toward you.
Dissent
Now, that is not to say you always agree. If you see the leaders taking a bad line, by all means, come to us and make the most compelling argument you can make for the line you think is better. That is not rebellious at all. That is perfectly compatible with submission. Just as it is a wonderful thing for a husband and wife to talk things over before making a decision, so it is great to have leaders and congregation talk things over. Many, many, many times I have started in one direction, and one of you came to me and persuaded me that a different course would be better, and I changed directions. And I praise God for those times. So don’t hold back on giving advice. I know you care very deeply about the health and wellbeing of this flock, and so you feel passionately about any area where it seems we are taking a bad line. So it is not a failure of submission to offer a dissenting view.
However, once you have offered that dissenting view, the leaders are required by God to make a decision, and when they do, if it is not the decision you would have preferred, that is where submission comes in. Remember - why are there commands in the Bible to submit to authority? Is it for those times when you agree? No – we don’t need God to command us to submit when we agree. Everyone already goes along with what they agree with. The reason for the commands about submission is for those times when you do not agree. So many people have an attitude, “I’ll submit - right up until I disagree.” That is not submission.
So you offer your advice, we talk it over, then the leadership makes the decision, and if it is not the direction you wanted - if you can do so without sinning, then your responsibility is to get on board. Align yourself with the heart of the leaders, and paddle hard in that direction.
Lording it Over Leaders
If you paddle in the other direction, that is not submission. Nor is it submission to use your influence to coerce the leaders into following your way. There are a lot of congregations that lord it over the leaders. They use coercion or manipulation or church politics to get the leaders to go their way. It is possible (in fact, quite common) for congregations to micro-manage the leaders. Especially staff. Everything the pastor does or preaches is constantly being critiqued by the power brokers - not according to Scripture, but according to their own preferences and desires. I have seen churches become so controlling of their pastors that the pastor cannot do anything he believes is best. He is just controlled by the people with the influence.
Again, because of the influence of the form of secular government we have in our country, many people think of leaders as nothing more than representatives of constituents. Colorado sends a delegation of leaders to Washington for the purpose of representing our interests. We do not really expect them to lead us in any way - just fight for our interests and try to accomplish the things we want done. And very often people import that same mentality into church government. So the elders in the church exist to carry out the wishes of individuals in the congregation. And so the congregation lords it over the leaders. God never calls the congregation to lord it over the leaders, or to control the leaders, or to micro-manage the leaders, or, for that matter, to manage the leaders at all. Rather, he calls them to submit to the leaders and follow their leadership.
The church is not a representative republic. Nor is it a democracy. Nowhere does the Bible ever endorse democracy as a form of church government. And churches that claim to be congregationally-ruled rarely are. In most cases they are run by two or three people who hold no office, no formal position, have no accountability, but they have influence and know how to get their way. God’s model cannot be improved upon. And His model is for elders to lead with humility and love, and for the congregation to align their hearts with their direction.
Listening
That is one aspect of submission - alignment. Another aspect is listening. Whenever you see a discussion in Scripture about submission to authority, you tend to see this word “listen” show up a lot in the discussion. For example, in Ephesians 6:1 when it says, Children obey your parents, the term translated “obey” literally means “to listen.”
Be Open-Hearted
What does that mean? Does it mean just hear sounds that are coming out of their mouths? No. It means to listen in the sense of giving credence (importance) to what they say. Give weight and validity in your thinking to what is being said. Take it seriously and be responsive to it.
And that responsiveness is a key part. When the Bible says God will listen to the prayers of the righteous, but He will not listen to the prayers of the wicked, that does not mean He is aware of one and unaware of the other. It means He is responsive to one and not the other. Listening means taking it to heart and being responsive to it.
Proverbs 1:8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction
That goes way beyond just following rules. It means to actually look to him for guidance, and being responsive to what he says.
But what if you know better than the authorities? What if you are smarter? What if you are a kid, and you know better than your parents, or you are a wife and you know better than your husband, or you are a church member and you know better than the elders? Well, if that’s you, you are in good company. Jesus knew better than His parents. But He was still obedient.
Luke 2:51 Then he went down to Nazareth with [Mary & Joseph] and was submissive to them.
You might be thinking, “That kind of listening is appropriate for a child. But does God expect us to do that toward elders in the church?”
Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.
Two commands - obey and submit. The word submit is not the same as the one in Peter. But it is very similar - it means to yield or give way. But the really interesting word is the one translated obey. It literally means, to be persuaded, to be won over, or to become a follower. The idea is to allow your heart to be won over. Put your heart into a condition of being easily persuaded by the leader.
You know how you just have kind of a cynical attitude with some people? You don’t really trust them, you don’t think they know what they are doing, you question their motives, or for whatever reason you are just kind of resistant to what they say? They could tell you the sky is blue and your first reaction would be to think, “I don’t know, has that ever really been verified...?” For whatever reason, when that person talks, you are not very persuadable. You are resistant. You are skeptical. Whenever that leader makes a decision, your default is to question it. You don’t trust his motives, you don’t trust his judgment, you don’t trust his wisdom.
And God says, “Don’t be that way toward your leaders in the church. Be open hearted and persuadable by them.” Try your hardest to become enthusiastic about their decisions. When you do not agree, then yield and submit. But as much as possible, bring your heart around to agree. We are called to have a natural disposition to be supportive of the elders’ goals and directions in our attitudes and actions.
Some things you won’t be able to support in a good conscience. Blind following is never good. Scripture warns us about bad leaders all the time, and we need to be alert to that. But when that happens – when you find you cannot follow with a clear conscience because you are being led toward sin by your leaders, let that be the exception to the rule of being inclined toward supportiveness.
Scripture calls us to follow the example of godly men and women and imitate their faith. And yet every godly man and every godly woman that God wants you to imitate are sinners. Every one of them. And yet God still calls you to imitate them, and to submit to them. And submitting means being as enthusiastic as you can be about their decisions.
Conclusion: Trust God!
Why? Because they always take the best line through the rapid? No - become enthusiastic about it because you know that their decision is God’s way of guiding the church. Your enthusiasm comes not from considering the merits of their decision, but rather from considering the promise of God to guide His people. That is why when we are looking for leaders we don’t look for the most brilliant or the most experienced or the most successful. We look for the most spiritual, because leadership in the church is all about guidance from God. And it is the prayer of the righteous man that is powerful and effective, and the Lord hears the righteous and His ear is attentive to their prayer. So the key to good decisions in the church is to put righteous men in the position of leadership, and then for those men to cry out to God for guidance.
If the elders of this church make a decision that does not seem to you like the best course, the natural tendency will be to look at each of us and consider our level of expertise in that area. “How smart is Darrell in that area?” and “How much experience does Bob have, and how qualified are Mike and Sam and Andrew in that field?” That is not the most important question. The most important question is, “Will these men go to the Word of God and pray hard? And when they do, will God respond to that by guiding them in ways they can discern?” And the answer is “Yes!” God has promised that.
Jeremiah 3:15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
The promise in Proverbs 6 is that the guidance that comes from God through human leaders is a lamp and a light and the way to life. God will not leave us in the dark. As the elders maintain personal holiness, and are faithful to cry out to God for guidance, you can trust God to lead this church in the direction He wants it to go even through the decisions of fallible elders. So you can glorify God by trusting Him to lead through His appointed under-shepherds.
Benediction: from Isaiah 58:11 May the LORD guide you always; may He satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. May you be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
1:25 Questions
1) How would you rate your submissiveness (attitudes, words, open-heartedness, etc.) to those God has placed over you?
2) In the areas where you struggle to submit, is it because you are not convinced God can follow through on His promise to lead through fallible human authorities? Or some other reason?
3) Do you need to go to anyone whose authority you have been resisting and ask forgiveness?
