Monday 6th March, 2023
If there’s anyone who has the right to insist on their own way it’s God.
God- goodness personified, the creator of all that ever was.
God, as described in the Old Testament as awesomely terrifying in their magnificence, the only one who can wield ultimate power and authority. God who created this amazing home for humanity, in return we disobeyed him, started murdering each other, worshipping other stuff that wasn’t him and in recent years seem hell bent on completely destroying this beautiful creation.
So what does God do? Puts aside all that holy magnificence, righteousness and power and instead becomes one of us. Submits himself to us, his creation, gives us our way. God deserves our worship but doesn’t demand it, and even says to us in the book of Amos, to paraphrase- ‘I’m not interested in all that, I’m interested in how you treat one another’
God would be justified in staying in heaven, sitting on his throne and demanding that we all bow the knee. God deserves our adoration. But instead, God’s concern is with us, with our well-being, our happiness, our ability to live life in all it’s fullness. God is concerned that we are treated with love, kindness and justice, God treats us like that, whether we deserve it or not, and asks us to treat one another like that. God does not insist that we love them, adore them or worship them, God simply insists on loving and cherishing us.
That’s what love does.
This is why Ephesians 5:21 tells husbands and wives, slaves and masters, parents and children to “submit to one another.” In particular marriage is supposed to be a model of Jesus relationship to the church. That relationship was not one of power and control, it was not one of master and servant or authority and subject, rather it was a relationship where the one with authority chose to give it up, to submit to the one with less power, so we could enjoy relationship together. This is why abusive marriages are a perversion of love, because they revolve around the abuser insisting on their own way.
Love submits itself to others
