GCV Blog

Grace Church of the Valley blog.


Personally, I think wasabi is more than distasteful. It's downright awful. Wasabi is a Japanese plant that looks innocent enough when artfully arranged on your plate as a pleasant green paste. One tiny nibble, however, was more than enough to send my entire nervous system into instant shock. Sometimes biblical words have a similar effect, and I think submission is a word that can give us the shivers. Submission ought not be an awful or even distasteful word. It is part of God's plan for the way all of us relate to one another. In Ephesians 5:21, Paul wrote that all believers should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In context, submission is an expected outcome of being filled with God's Spirit. None of us is inherently superior to another, and--even more than that--all of us must be willing to put aside our own preferences and ideas in favor of others. If principles are not at stake, preferences should be humbly set aside. Humble deference, not arrogant domination, is Christ's plan for relationships in the church. Paul anchors our submission to each other in our worship of Christ. If you revere Christ, you will be a person who submits to others. Instead of feeling that you are most important, you will assume others are more significant. Instead of prioritizing your own interests, you will be most engrossed in the interests of others. Let's allow Christ's commands in the one-anothers to shape how we relate and minister to each other here at Grace Church.