1Peter 5:6-7, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."-NKJV
Being called humble is still considered to be a compliment in today's world but the word "submission" doesn't garner the same warm and fuzzy feeling. The strange thing is; you really can't be humble without submitting to something. Even if you look at the passage above, "humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God" we can see that humbling ourselves before God, requires us to be "under" His mighty hand. Let's do a little word-study on humble.
From a biblical perspective the Greek root for humble means, "to make low". What I found to be interesting was to look at this word from the transitive verb tense as used in this passage. Merriam-Webster's defines humble this way, "to destroy the power, independence or prestige of". Wow! When you destroy something you; kill, neutralize, annihilate or vanquish a thing. The idea is to break a structure down in such a way that it can not be put back together again. Now we understand power as authority and/or force, and independence as autonomy, that is not being "dependent" on anything else to sustain itself. However, the word "prestige" is what really caught my attention. Webster defines this as the, "standing or estimation in the eyes of people". Still on the word study, "prestige" has an old French origin, which translates as, "a conjurer's trick; illusion" and of course a conjurer is a wizard or magician; one who practices magic arts (witchcraft). Now if we string the definitions together, to humble yourself is, "the act of killing the witchcraft or conjured up thought process of where you stand in the eyes of other people!"
Isn't that the crux of the matter? We have a problem with submitting because we have brought into society's definition and are worried about how we look when we submit. I watch armor-bearers in church situations. The ones who are secure in who they are just go ahead and serve. They tie the preacher's shoe and even wipe their forehead in the middle of a sermon. The ones who struggle with how "they look to others" are the ones who, despite seeing the need, wait until they are called upon by the person they are serving. If they are not afraid of how "on-lookers" perceive them, they are worried about how the preacher will respond. Do you see the conjurer's trick? While you are trying to figure out what people are saying or thinkingyou wind up doing nothing to avoid the possibility of being mistreated.
What I love about God is that He doesn't hang us out to dry. On the front end of chapter five, He outlines the accountability for those in authority. Speaking to the elders through Peter, He says, "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away." (1Peter 5:2-4) While we worry about being mistreated, used and abused, God charges the elders not to be lords over those under their care. The phrase "lord over" comes from a Greek word meaning to subdue, restrain or suppress. If you have ever watched a WWE wrestling match (as phony as it may be) there are moves they do to intentionally make a person give up. It's not just about pinning the opponent, it's about dominating and over powering themforcing submission. This passage explicitly speaks against that type of authoritative expression over people.
Instead, elders are encouraged to lead by example. In other words, the one in prominent position is also required to serve. I am reminded of a pastor's wife who was trying to arrange a group of ladies in her discipleship group to serve by collecting money for the breakfast at a church. She placed herself in the service rotation with the other ladies to be responsible for a Sunday. When some saw her serving in this capacity, they made such a protest that she removed herself. At first I thought, "Well yeah, you shouldn't have to do that". The concern was that if some see her doing such a thing, they may no longer treat her with the respect she deserves. (Abracadabra, no Hocus-Pocus!) Her heart felt response was, "They need to see us serve sometime!" According to this passage, she was right. There are at least two ways to disqualify yourself for the crown of glory. One is to "lord your position over others" and two is to refuse to engage in the service you are requiring or expecting from others.
On the other side of verse six Peter continues to explain, regarding this issue of humbling yourself, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." It wasn't until the Lord laid this subject on my heart that I paid attention to the connection between verses six and seven. This is a continuation of thought, not a separate focus. Basically God is saying, "I know you're concerned about humbling yourself. It puts you in a vulnerable position. However, I am not going to let anyone harm you because I am concerned about you". Isn't it comforting to know that the God of the universe has us on His mind? (Psalms 8:4) If we trust Him more than we trust people, we can follow his commands even when they are uncomfortable for us. Even when the one in authority is a tyrant or seeking to take advantage of us, we have the assurance that God is only going to let them go so far.
Continuing in chapter 5, we can see that true submission entails some suffering. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world." (1Peter 5:8-9) Again this is a continuation of the same thought. Do you see that lacking of humility is actually a tactic used by the adversary to consume us? To be honest, I never thought about it this way but "divide and conquer" is a very effective military strategy. If we can fight each other long enough, Satan doesn't have to do anything at all. We'll spiritually kill ourselves and then he'll make sure we get exposed to the world at our weakest moment so unbelievers will question the power of God. When we don't submit to processes or people around us who have been placed in authority, the machine stops moving and if the battle is intense enough.the whole thing falls apart. In short, if we don't suffer for a little while upfront, we suffer longer on the back end.
Beware about "always" feeling comfortable not needing anything from anyone or avoiding processes that involve someone else leading, guiding or critiquing your work. Now true, you don't need to submit to everybody. Yes some folks are out to get you but please get off the conspiracy theory...it's not everybody! The reality is that in many cases, this is not our issue. We use the conspiracy theory excuse because we don't want anybody telling us what to do.
I'm not sure we need another church, record label, publishing firm or film company. I'm not frowning on entrepreneurship; I'm suggesting we check to see if we are starting our own because God told us to, or simply to avoid submitting to someone else. Remember, we have different gifts but we serve the same God and He intends for us to function as a body, humbly submitted one to another.