We are going to spend a few days looking at 1 Peter 5:5: "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." Our society and formal education seems to stress our getting ahead. We are always trying to be better than the next person. While there is nothing wrong with personal achievement, it must not displace the requirement of service and humility. We are to be subject to one another. The word subject is a present participle and this means that the action of being subject to one another is to be continuous and ongoing. The word "subject" means to place in submission. We are to look for ways to be in submission to each other. What would this do for marriages? How would this approach affect church disagreements? What about disputes among the children of God? If we practiced this type of submission, life would be more Christlike.
William Burkitt describes this mutual submission as follows: "He adds--yea, all of you be subject one to another; intimating thereby that there is a duty of mutual subjection, which all Christians owe one to another in love: they ought to condescend to the meanest offices one towards another; to bear with the infirmities of each other."
Adam Clarke says: "Strive all to serve each other; let the pastors strive to serve the people, and the people the pastors; and let there be no contention, but who shall do most to oblige and profit all the rest."
Our lives are to be characterized by mutual submission. While this may require a shift in thinking, I recommend that you start the process today. Look for an opportunity to submit to a fellow believer in love. Try to find a chance to serve. As you do, you are developing a Christ like character as well as a Christ like lifestyle. Now that is what we call being a disciple!
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