History throughout the ages shows that the whole world is in rebellion. The underlying principle of the world is an overthrow of either God’s direct authority or His appointed authority. Today is the age when the Body of the Lord, that is, the church, is built on earth. The underlying principle of the church should be the principle of submission. God puts a high demand on the church; He wants to secure what He originally planned to secure in the world. Today in the church God puts a high stake on the woman; she must submit to the man. How difficult it is for God to secure such a thing in the world! If you ask a woman in the world today whether she is willing to submit to man, she will feel that such a demand makes no sense. Yet in the church today, God demands that the woman be submissive to the man, and the wife to the husband.
Ephesians and Colossians are lofty books, but what kind of commandments do we find in these Epistles? They tell us that wives should be subject to their husbands, children to their parents, and slaves to their masters. This is not something that can be found in the world; it can be found only in the church.
Ephesians and Colossians touch the highest things. They show us that we were once sons of disobedience. Just like the world, our former principle of life was rebellion. We were called sons of disobedience. Today God has given us a commandment: Wives should be subject to their husbands, children to their parents, and slaves to their masters. This is something different from the whole world. This shows us that submission is the basic principle of the church today.
We see an even clearer word in the book of Romans. Romans 13:1 says, “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are ordained by God.” All authority is ordained by God. This verse and those that follow show us in particular that we should be subject not only to authorities but also to rulers. Render to them what is due: Tax to whom tax is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due (v. 7). No other book speaks about salvation as clearly as the book of Romans. Yet this same book tells us, beginning in Romans 12 on the matter of consecration to Romans 14, that we should be submissive not only in the church but also in the world. A man must submit to all the authorities over him.
The church is a body of people. This body has one characteristic—submission. While we live on earth today, we take submission as our very nature and as the principle of our very living.
Today the church should be strong enough to declare that it can offer to God what He failed to gain at the time of Adam. It should be able to offer to God what He could not gain from the world, from the nation of Israel, or from many tribes, peoples, nations, and tongues. In other words, there must be at least one place on this earth where God’s authority is upheld. The church should lift up her eyes and say, “Lord, what You could not gain from Satan, You are gaining from us. What You could not gain from the devil and the rebellious angels, You are gaining through the church.”
Today the church is demonstrating the authority of God to all the rulers and authorities. The church is on earth today not only for the preaching of the gospel or for self-edification, but also for the manifestation of God’s authority. God’s authority has been rejected everywhere on earth. It is being honored only in the church. Nowhere else on earth are people seeking God’s will. The church is the only place where men seek God’s will. In other words, the church is the “institution of submission.” If you are not yet saved and are not yet in the church, nothing more can be said. But if you are in the church, you must uphold one basic need and principle before the Lord—you must insist that God’s authority be carried out in the church today. God’s will cannot be done every place on earth, yet His will must be done in the church. We must uphold God’s authority in the church.