Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God calls those filled with the Spirit to yield to one another out of reverence for God, letting the Spirit rather than selfishness guide speech, song, thanksgiving and all conduct. In marriage it lays down the rule that husband and wife glorify God in their united life only by faithful, self-sacrificing love, not insisting on their own way but kindly yielding to one another, the husband cherishing his wife as priest and houseband of the home and the wife respecting and loving her husband. In the church it commands humility and mutual regard that press believers together as a unit, accepting order and discipline, receiving counsel, correction and reproof, and counseling together rather than trusting only one's own mind and moving independently. This mutual subjection empties the soul of pride and independent, separate interests, so that no one attempts to go to heaven alone but all are led together, preferring one another, supplying one another's lack, and growing in harmony under Christ.
Spirit-Filled Mutual Submission
Submitting to one another in reverence for God belongs to being filled with the Spirit, and to a life that honors God in body and spirit. When believers submit to one another in this way, the Spirit guides all their actions rather than selfishness. This mutual submission stands together with speaking and singing spiritual songs from the heart and with giving continual thanks to God through Christ.
It belongs to walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, and understanding what the will of the Lord is. It belongs to being filled with the Spirit instead of being drunk with wine wherein is excess, to speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with melody in the heart to the Lord, and to giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another in the fear of God keeps the soul steadfast under sharp, stinging, faultfinding words through continual reverence for the Word of God. Therefore when brethren do not treat a fellow man as Christians should, he sings to the Lord instead of answering back and invents means to stop the flow of angry words.
No person is complete in himself, so believers are to be subject to one another. This mutual subjection is carried out by submitting the mind and will to the Holy Spirit. It is carried out by continuing to learn from the great Teacher and ever remaining learners of Him.
Submission in Marriage
Submitting to one another in reverence for God comes as the result of being filled with the Spirit, joined with singing from the heart and continual thanksgiving, and it lays down the rule for marriage that every married man and every married woman must study carefully and apply by searching the heart and showing faithful, considerate love to a spouse. When husband and wife submit themselves to one another in the fear of God, with walking circumspectly as wise, redeeming the time, understanding what the will of the Lord is, being filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with melody in the heart, and giving thanks always for all things to God in the name of Christ, this is the only way they can glorify God in their united life. That united life requires lifelong faithfulness and self-sacrifice that leads to the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, with the husband as the houseband of the family and priest of his home loving and cherishing his wife, and the wife respecting and loving her husband.
In marriage this submission means a husband should not press ahead in the world’s rush for wealth and power, but should move gently at a pace his wife can endure, comforting and supporting her as his companion. In family and marriage life it means not insisting on having one’s own way, but being kind to one another and yielding to one another’s wishes. That yielding is to be shown with affection, kindness, and truth, and with forbearance, kindness, tenderness, and courtesy, with spouses sometimes giving way in judgment rather than insisting on their own course.
With Ephesians 5:21-33 making distinct and plain the duties of husband and wife and the relations that should exist between parents and children, Christian husband and wife have the same hope in Jesus Christ, are both amenable to God, and are both under one Master, and in the highest sense should be as a brother and a sister to each other, undivided in spirit, serving one Lord and Master. This requires mutually sharing the responsibility of training children, with the father looking upon the mother of his children as deserving of all kindness, tenderness, and sympathy, speaking no word of censure of her in the hearing of the children, and the mother speaking no disrespectful word of her husband in the presence of the children. The husband stands in the Lord’s sight as priest and head of his household, watching and praying and keeping his soul in communion with God, withstanding temptation, and molding and fashioning his children’s favorable or unfavorable temperaments to develop characters the Lord can approve, while himself remaining under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit.
Unity in Church Life
God's people are commanded to yield to one another in reverence for God, practicing humility and mutual regard as the way to press together and be a unit. This united submission is their strength, and heeding it is for the church's present and eternal good. It keeps the church in its sacred, holy calling separate from the world, so that God's voice controls its members and the church keeps power to influence.
In the church this means accepting order and discipline, acting in unity, and trusting and heeding one another's warnings, which protects the church and helps members save one another from danger. All are to esteem others better than themselves, with no one trusting only his own mind and judgment or moving independently on his own peculiar course, but coming together in church capacity, observing order with rules and disciplines, in union and confidence. The prosperity and very existence of the church depend on this prompt, united action and mutual confidence, giving safety in the hour of danger and peril when Satan seeks to destroy God's people. When the alarm of danger sounds there is then prompt active work without delay that would let the enemy gain advantage and souls be lost.
Members must therefore be willing to be counseled, reproved, corrected, and directed by the body, respecting the counsel and judgment of the church as their guide rather than insisting on one's own way and feelings. This requires humility and forbearance and overcoming self, for dear self is the most obstinate person the follower of Jesus has to contend with. It includes humbly receiving brethren's counsel, correction, and help rather than treating those who seek to help as personal enemies. Those looking for Christ's appearing must possess the power of endurance and self-control if they would have God's Spirit with them.
It means yielding personal will and judgment and being willing to be taught, because no one can go to heaven alone. God is leading, guiding, and instructing a people together, so they must be subject one to another, and to undertake to go alone and independently is to choose the wrong path that will not lead to life. This mutual submission opposes independent and separate interests, including divisions based on nationality, and joins believers in shared work and fellowship. It is God's ordained means for believers to influence and refine one another, so that through humility and union and through truth and the transforming power of Christ and the Holy Spirit they are brought into harmony with heaven and transformed after the divine pattern and blended from different nationalities into one brotherhood, bringing strength.
Those engaged in God's work are to be subject to one another by receiving counsel and working in harmony with their brethren rather than following independent notions, which supports worship conducted with unity and sound judgment under the principles God gives through His word and Spirit. Submission to the authority of Christ is an essential qualification in His disciples, meaning choosing to be subject one to another by counseling together and helping one another, laying plans frankly before brethren, asking advice of those of good judgment, and working with one of a different temperament. It is opposed to refusing advice, feeling rights invaded, being impatient of control, wanting to follow one's own mind and judgment, and to the pride that feels hurt when advised and counseled. It empties the soul of pride and self-sufficiency to make room for Jesus, brings sympathy and harmony with God's plans and entire dependence on God for grace and guidance, and preserves from the consequences of letting self-will control.
God's laborers are to be subject to one another and to prefer one another in honor, showing confidence and love rather than trying to rule or control fellow workers, and as each person looks to Jesus and submits to God's direction, the workers can grow in unity and harmony. God's people must be subject to one another in humility by counseling and advising with each other, so that those who lack judgment and management do not depend on their own judgment but seek counsel from brethren who have judgment and take their advice. In this way the lack of one is supplied by the sufficiency of the other, with able brethren cheerfully relieving those who come into strait places while doing their best. Believers are at the same time to counsel together and be subject to one another while each person uses the ability God has given to learn the truth and seeks divine enlightenment, for mutual submission does not mean relying on another person as the standard of truth or refusing to reconsider one's own opinions.
True Christians working together, especially in the publishing house in Nashville, must be subject to one another by consulting together and laboring together in love and unity under a constant sense of God's supervision. They are to wear the yoke of Christ without divided minds, divided interests, or estrangement, drawn to each other by the cords of Christ's love, and as they do this the Lord will bless and strengthen them and make the work a success. All are to be subject to one another and harmonize as Christian workers instead of becoming set in carrying out their own plans and ideas independent of the plans and views of their brethren, and this applies to young physicians and teachers. Dr. Hayward and his wife must learn this lesson and work as true medical missionaries on earth if they would be prepared for the heavenly school in the mansions above.
Mutual submission in the church especially requires ministers and presidents of conferences not to assume they know too much but to show genuine love and confidence toward church members. Leaders must educate the people to search the Scriptures for themselves while the Holy Spirit molds each person after Christ, must recognize that God works in the church through the members as well as through the preacher, must regard individual members as God's chosen ones for thoughtful labor to save souls from the darkness of error, and must give them ample encouragement. Obeyed in this way, it removes contention and striving for mastery and for the highest places of leadership. It prepares the church for the Holy Spirit to teach much more and to reveal divine truth with power as members walk humbly with God.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God calls those filled with the Spirit to yield to one another out of reverence for God, letting the Spirit rather than selfishness guide speech, song, thanksgiving and all conduct. In marriage it lays down the rule that husband and wife glorify God in their united life only by faithful, self-sacrificing love, not insisting on their own way but kindly yielding to one another, the husband cherishing his wife as priest and houseband of the home and the wife respecting and loving her husband. In the church it commands humility and mutual regard that press believers together as a unit, accepting order and discipline, receiving counsel, correction and reproof, and counseling together rather than trusting only one's own mind and moving independently. This mutual subjection empties the soul of pride and independent, separate interests, so that no one attempts to go to heaven alone but all are led together, preferring one another, supplying one another's lack, and growing in harmony under Christ.
Spirit-Filled Mutual Submission
Submitting to one another in reverence for God belongs to being filled with the Spirit, and to a life that honors God in body and spirit. When believers submit to one another in this way, the Spirit guides all their actions rather than selfishness. This mutual submission stands together with speaking and singing spiritual songs from the heart and with giving continual thanks to God through Christ.
It belongs to walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, and understanding what the will of the Lord is. It belongs to being filled with the Spirit instead of being drunk with wine wherein is excess, to speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with melody in the heart to the Lord, and to giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another in the fear of God keeps the soul steadfast under sharp, stinging, faultfinding words through continual reverence for the Word of God. Therefore when brethren do not treat a fellow man as Christians should, he sings to the Lord instead of answering back and invents means to stop the flow of angry words.
No person is complete in himself, so believers are to be subject to one another. This mutual subjection is carried out by submitting the mind and will to the Holy Spirit. It is carried out by continuing to learn from the great Teacher and ever remaining learners of Him.
Submission in Marriage
Submitting to one another in reverence for God comes as the result of being filled with the Spirit, joined with singing from the heart and continual thanksgiving, and it lays down the rule for marriage that every married man and every married woman must study carefully and apply by searching the heart and showing faithful, considerate love to a spouse. When husband and wife submit themselves to one another in the fear of God, with walking circumspectly as wise, redeeming the time, understanding what the will of the Lord is, being filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with melody in the heart, and giving thanks always for all things to God in the name of Christ, this is the only way they can glorify God in their united life. That united life requires lifelong faithfulness and self-sacrifice that leads to the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, with the husband as the houseband of the family and priest of his home loving and cherishing his wife, and the wife respecting and loving her husband.
In marriage this submission means a husband should not press ahead in the world’s rush for wealth and power, but should move gently at a pace his wife can endure, comforting and supporting her as his companion. In family and marriage life it means not insisting on having one’s own way, but being kind to one another and yielding to one another’s wishes. That yielding is to be shown with affection, kindness, and truth, and with forbearance, kindness, tenderness, and courtesy, with spouses sometimes giving way in judgment rather than insisting on their own course.
With Ephesians 5:21-33 making distinct and plain the duties of husband and wife and the relations that should exist between parents and children, Christian husband and wife have the same hope in Jesus Christ, are both amenable to God, and are both under one Master, and in the highest sense should be as a brother and a sister to each other, undivided in spirit, serving one Lord and Master. This requires mutually sharing the responsibility of training children, with the father looking upon the mother of his children as deserving of all kindness, tenderness, and sympathy, speaking no word of censure of her in the hearing of the children, and the mother speaking no disrespectful word of her husband in the presence of the children. The husband stands in the Lord’s sight as priest and head of his household, watching and praying and keeping his soul in communion with God, withstanding temptation, and molding and fashioning his children’s favorable or unfavorable temperaments to develop characters the Lord can approve, while himself remaining under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit.
Unity in Church Life
God's people are commanded to yield to one another in reverence for God, practicing humility and mutual regard as the way to press together and be a unit. This united submission is their strength, and heeding it is for the church's present and eternal good. It keeps the church in its sacred, holy calling separate from the world, so that God's voice controls its members and the church keeps power to influence.
In the church this means accepting order and discipline, acting in unity, and trusting and heeding one another's warnings, which protects the church and helps members save one another from danger. All are to esteem others better than themselves, with no one trusting only his own mind and judgment or moving independently on his own peculiar course, but coming together in church capacity, observing order with rules and disciplines, in union and confidence. The prosperity and very existence of the church depend on this prompt, united action and mutual confidence, giving safety in the hour of danger and peril when Satan seeks to destroy God's people. When the alarm of danger sounds there is then prompt active work without delay that would let the enemy gain advantage and souls be lost.
Members must therefore be willing to be counseled, reproved, corrected, and directed by the body, respecting the counsel and judgment of the church as their guide rather than insisting on one's own way and feelings. This requires humility and forbearance and overcoming self, for dear self is the most obstinate person the follower of Jesus has to contend with. It includes humbly receiving brethren's counsel, correction, and help rather than treating those who seek to help as personal enemies. Those looking for Christ's appearing must possess the power of endurance and self-control if they would have God's Spirit with them.
It means yielding personal will and judgment and being willing to be taught, because no one can go to heaven alone. God is leading, guiding, and instructing a people together, so they must be subject one to another, and to undertake to go alone and independently is to choose the wrong path that will not lead to life. This mutual submission opposes independent and separate interests, including divisions based on nationality, and joins believers in shared work and fellowship. It is God's ordained means for believers to influence and refine one another, so that through humility and union and through truth and the transforming power of Christ and the Holy Spirit they are brought into harmony with heaven and transformed after the divine pattern and blended from different nationalities into one brotherhood, bringing strength.
Those engaged in God's work are to be subject to one another by receiving counsel and working in harmony with their brethren rather than following independent notions, which supports worship conducted with unity and sound judgment under the principles God gives through His word and Spirit. Submission to the authority of Christ is an essential qualification in His disciples, meaning choosing to be subject one to another by counseling together and helping one another, laying plans frankly before brethren, asking advice of those of good judgment, and working with one of a different temperament. It is opposed to refusing advice, feeling rights invaded, being impatient of control, wanting to follow one's own mind and judgment, and to the pride that feels hurt when advised and counseled. It empties the soul of pride and self-sufficiency to make room for Jesus, brings sympathy and harmony with God's plans and entire dependence on God for grace and guidance, and preserves from the consequences of letting self-will control.
God's laborers are to be subject to one another and to prefer one another in honor, showing confidence and love rather than trying to rule or control fellow workers, and as each person looks to Jesus and submits to God's direction, the workers can grow in unity and harmony. God's people must be subject to one another in humility by counseling and advising with each other, so that those who lack judgment and management do not depend on their own judgment but seek counsel from brethren who have judgment and take their advice. In this way the lack of one is supplied by the sufficiency of the other, with able brethren cheerfully relieving those who come into strait places while doing their best. Believers are at the same time to counsel together and be subject to one another while each person uses the ability God has given to learn the truth and seeks divine enlightenment, for mutual submission does not mean relying on another person as the standard of truth or refusing to reconsider one's own opinions.
True Christians working together, especially in the publishing house in Nashville, must be subject to one another by consulting together and laboring together in love and unity under a constant sense of God's supervision. They are to wear the yoke of Christ without divided minds, divided interests, or estrangement, drawn to each other by the cords of Christ's love, and as they do this the Lord will bless and strengthen them and make the work a success. All are to be subject to one another and harmonize as Christian workers instead of becoming set in carrying out their own plans and ideas independent of the plans and views of their brethren, and this applies to young physicians and teachers. Dr. Hayward and his wife must learn this lesson and work as true medical missionaries on earth if they would be prepared for the heavenly school in the mansions above.
Mutual submission in the church especially requires ministers and presidents of conferences not to assume they know too much but to show genuine love and confidence toward church members. Leaders must educate the people to search the Scriptures for themselves while the Holy Spirit molds each person after Christ, must recognize that God works in the church through the members as well as through the preacher, must regard individual members as God's chosen ones for thoughtful labor to save souls from the darkness of error, and must give them ample encouragement. Obeyed in this way, it removes contention and striving for mastery and for the highest places of leadership. It prepares the church for the Holy Spirit to teach much more and to reveal divine truth with power as members walk humbly with God.