“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
‘God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.’”
submit yourselves to your elders.
“Submit” means to subordinate. The grammar also indicates that “submit” means to “allow” yourselves [passive voice] to be subordinate to the leaders of the local church. Evidently, there were people in Asia Minor churches who did not submit themselves to the authority of their leaders. Peter’s solution to the problem is decisive submission [aorist imperative] to authority. God wants those in subordination to obey the leadership of the church.
Peter had already prescribed that Christians as a whole to submit to government (2:13-14), that slaves submit to their masters (2:18) and wives submit to their husbands (3:1). No organization can function without authority. No organization can have two equal heads or leaders without causing severe problems. Conflict always comes at the point of crucial decisions. An army cannot have two Major Generals commanding the same division. If the church has two heads, confusion will result.
Principle:
The church cannot function properly without authority.
Application:
People who cannot submit to the leadership of the local church, find themselves miserable and pondering a church split. Submission to “elders” makes for a well run church.
Self-discipline is the basis of authority. Discipline is necessary for every area of life. The most consistent athletes are self-disciplined.
It is amazing how many people think that the church should operate without authority. “No one has a right to have authority over me in the local church” they say people revolt against authority in the local church because they are not self-disciplined in the first place and do not recognize the intrinsic value of authority.
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