Submitted To One Another

I’ve never experienced anything quite like Monday nights lately.

We come together every week to worship. One person shares a prayer request, another responds with a Scripture for encouragement, and that verse brings a song to someone else’s mind.

With bread waiting to be broken for communion and candlelight flickering, we come together as the body of Christ, flowing from one thing to the next, submitted to one another. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced.

It can be easy to see that pastors or elders are to be submitted to. People with titles or people on stage were put there for a reason. But the truth is, every single member of the body of Christ has something to offer.

That means you have something to share and can be bold in leading other believers in what God gives you.

This also means that we need to celebrate others’ gifts and be willing to be led by them in their areas of strength—even if they aren’t on the stage. It doesn’t say, “Submit to pastors because they are better than you.”

No! It says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” We honor those bearing the burden of leadership and the responsibility of teaching. But all believers have the Holy Spirit in us.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own” 1 Corinthians 6:19

We are submitting to God working in and through our fellow believers. As a friend likes to say, “The Holy Spirit isn’t immature in my teenage daughter and mature in me. The Holy Spirit can work through both of us.”

This is uncomfortable. It may be uncomfortable to share what the Holy Spirit strengthens you to share. And it may be uncomfortable to submit to another human—but we do not submit because of people. We are submitted to Christ in each other.

And the result, my friends, is sweet. Mutually submitting to the Spirit in one another, we come together with unity, humility, joy, peace, and confidence.

Lord, thank you for sending us the Holy Spirit. Please help me to identify the ways the Holy Spirit works through me and give me the courage to obey. Forgive me for any ways I have not submitted to my brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

Throughout this day: How do you see the people around you giving of their gifts? What can you say today to affirm them in the way God created them to be? Choose one person and send them a quick text!