Subjection In A Kingdom

by J. Miller | Category: Churches Of God | Aug 1951

The Greek word for subjection in the New Testament is hupotasso, from hupo = under, and tasso = to arrange, order, place in a certain order; thus subjection means to place or arrange under any person or thing. The word obedience may be a translation of hupakouo (from hupo = under, and akouo = to listen, to hear), which means to hear under, with the object of obeying what is commanded. To obey may also be a translation of peitho = to persuade; consequently the opposite of being persuaded is disobedience. It will be seen that subjection has to do with the recognition and acknowledgement of divine order or arrangement, whereas obedience has to do with hearing instructions or commands that are given and with the carrying of them out.

We are told in Ephesians 5.24 that "the Church (that is, the Body of Christ) is subject to Christ." This is a statement of absolute fact. The Church is and never will be otherwise than subject to Christ. No commandments have been given to the Church or its members as such, otherwise we should have had a disrupted and scattered Church, a Church which could never be presented by the Lord to Himself without spot or blemish or any such thing. One thing and one thing only is required of all who are in this Church, and that is to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16.16). There is no other charter than this for persons to become members of this Body, and to remain in a state of divine order as members under their glorious Head.

When commandments are introduced this involves continuous hearing and equally continuous obedience. Herein emerges another form of subjection, the subjection of a disciple to his Master, a bondservant or slave to his Lord, a subject to his King. When a person has believed in Christ as Saviour, the matter of subjection to Christ as Lord quickly arises. Such an attitude of mind is seen in Saul of Tarsus as he lay on the Damascus road, when he said, "What shall I do, Lord?" (Acts 22.10). When we think of his later words, that "no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12.8), we see how truly subject his heart was to the Lord Jesus, and consequently it was an easy thing for him to hear and obey whatever His commands might be, though his obedience to Christ's commands might bring upon him the bitterest spite of the Jews in Damascus, who watched the gates to kill him, and his disciples let him down through the wall in a basket (Acts 9.24, 25). Years after he recounted those scenes as he wrote of his perils and sufferings (2 Corinthians 11.32, 33).

The first of the Lord's commands which Paul obeyed was that of baptism, when he was commanded, by Ananias the Lord's servant and messenger, "Arise, and be baptized" (Acts 22.16), "and he arose and was baptized" (Acts 9.18). Insubjection to the Lord's authority and disobedience to His word have resulted in the scattering of the disciples of the Lord. Instead of the plain, simple command of the Lord for His disciples to be baptized in water following regeneration, we have the Romanists and others teachin'g that baptism (or rather sprinkling) takes away original sin, and that babies dying without sprinkling will go to the torments of Hell, not through any failure or sin on their own part, but by the fault of others. Such a monstrous and false doctrine formulated by men in counsel with the devil has bound myriads hand and foot in chains of darkness. The Church of England, with other episcopal churches in full communion with it, teaches baptismal regeneration, a doctrine much like the Romanist's, that an infant becomes a child of God by the cleric's act at the baptismal font, a lie of the devil which has also deceived myriads. Then we have the Exclusive brethren, followers of Darby, who believed in the baptism of infants and bringing them on to Christian ground, a doctrine nowhere, found in scripture, just another lie of the devil. In order to bolster up this doctrine they have to put infants into Lydia's and the jailor's households in Philippi (Acts 16.14, 15, 31-34). We do not even know that Lydia had a husband, far less a family, and Paul spoke the word of the Lord to the jailor and all that were in his house. Wonderful infants indeed to hear and receive the word of the Lord! But not content with such bolstering up false doctrine, they must tell us that the children of the Israelites passed through the waters of the Red Sea, and this, according to the Exelusives, is proof positive that unregenerated children should be baptized now. Surely they willingly forget that it was the first-born male children of the Israelites that were under sentence of death and would have died on the night of the passover in Egypt had they not been sheltered by the blood of redemption and so saved. Such passed through the Red Sea. Why do they not follow typical teaching to its logical conclusion and not write craftily to deceive the simple? Moreover, were not the sheep and oxen in the sea and under the cloud as well? If the Exclusive baptizes his little children, what about baptizing his cattle also, if he has such? The cattle of the Israelites were also preserved from death, whereas the first-horns of the Egyptians' cattle died.

To what limits do some people push unscriptural exposition of God's holy word! The fact is that all Israelites, young and old, were under the blood on the passover night, and all such passed through the sea and were so baptized unto Moses (1 Corinthians 10.1, 2). No one then or now should be under water till they have first been under the blood.

Then we have the Open brethren who do not require that all they receive to their comnaunion shall be baptized. Mu 11cr and Craik when they began their work in Bristol required that all, before they were received and allowed to break bread, must be baptized, afterwards abandoned this and adopted the open table, baptism being left optional; the applicant for fellowship could be received without baptism, if he so desired, a course which is still followed by many open me'etings. As well also the co-related practice is followed of receiving children of God from other sects, based on calling the Lord's table, the Father's table, and making the breaking of the bread open to all the Father's children; which, of course, they cannot and do not carry out, for many open meetings will not receive brethren from other open meetings, though they know full well that these brethren are the Father's children. But such is just an evidence of the utter confusion of doctrine and practice that exists amongst those commonly called Open Brethren.

But why do we refer to such matters? because subjection to Christ and obedience to His commands lie at the beginning of the disciple pathway, and if the Lord's disciples go wrong here, they will be wrong ever afterwards, if their initial error is not corrected.

A kingdom worthy of such a name demands unity, arrangement, cohesion. God's kingdom in this dispensation was established among the little flock, even as He said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12.32). They were to make the kingdom of God the chief business of their life. What men of the world sought was not to be their great quest in this world, even as He said: "Seek not ye what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: but your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. Howbeit seek ye His kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you" (verses 29-31). The Lord's will is "one flock, one Shepherd" (John 10.16). It was to the men of this one flock that He, during the forty days between His resurrection and ascension to God's right hand, was found "speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts 1.8). Paul, too, is found in Acts 19.8-10 speaking in the synagogue in Ephesus, "reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning the kingdom of God" (verse 8). This was not the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1.6), for the kingdom of God had been taken from Israel and given to another nation; that is, the little flock (Matthew 21.48).

Paul's presentation of the kingdom of God in its New Testament setting, as applicable to the Lord's disciples who were gathered together in the churches of God in different towns and cities, stirred up many of the Jews who were hardened, disobedient, and who spoke evil of the Way before the multitude; consequently Paul departed from them and separated the disciples. As it was in Ephesus where divine separation followed the teaching of the things concerning the '~kingdom of God, so was it in Jerusalem, where Peter called on those who believed his message concerning repentance and baptism to save themselves from this crooked generation (Acts 2. 37-42). Those who received Peter's word were baptized and added.

Subjection and consequent obedience are bound up in the closing statement of Peter's address in Acts 2.: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, thls Jesus whom ye crucified" (Acts 2.86). If Jesus Christ is Lord (and who can doubt that who believes the Scriptures?) then it is the privilege of all to be subject to Him. There can be no evasion of this issue. This carries with it implicit obedience to His commands. Obedience is the true test of love to Him, as He said, "If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments." "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (John 14.14, 21). Where men play fast and loose with the Lord's commandments is no place for the disciple who would be subject to his Lord.

Elders, who have been constituted such by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20. 17, 28), and have been recognized as such by men (1 Thessalonians 5.12, 13; 1 Timothy 3. 1-7; Titus 1. 5-9; Hebrews 13.17), have a prime responsibility to care for the flock (1 Peter 5.1, 2), and to see that God's word is carried out among them. In such a sphere the younger elders are to be subject to the older elders: "Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder," and it does not stop at the younger being subject to the elder, "Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility to serve one another" (1 Peter 5.5). This presents to saints a worthy example to follow, for they are commanded by the Lord, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them" (Hebrews 13.17). Self-will and self-choice have no place in the things of God. First of all we should be subject to the one Lord, Jesus Christ, and obey His commandments as He gives them. Wives are to be subject to their husbands; children are to obey their parents; saints are to submit to their elders; younger elders are to be in subjection to the older elders, and all elders are to be girded with humility to serve each other. Happy indeed is such a people, for then that kingdom has come for which the Lord taught His disciples to pray"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (Matthew 8.10).

J. Miller | Aug 1951
Churches Of God