Be Subject One to Another
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:5Devotional Series: Before Honor, Humility
Teaching: Before Honor...Humility pt. 3 (SUN_AM 2023-10-08) by Pastor Star R Scott
Remember, everything originates with God. The faith to humble ourselves comes from God. It’s a gift, it’s preeminent, it’s first. Prevenient grace we talk about, that aspect of “God initiating this.” The question is, is it what our heart desires? Do you really want to be humble? Are you ready to release lordship of your life as it pertains to every aspect? We’ve talked about it in some of the hard decisions that many of us have had to make. Whether it’s a spouse, or a child, or a parent, or whatever, following the wisdom of God, the mandate of God, and dealing with those who have apostatized, or who are rebels, who are haters of God and how we’ve had to make decisions to humble ourselves to obey God; amen? That’s tough stuff. It’s done daily. You can’t get humble once for all. You have to become humble every day by waking up and saying, “Not my will, thy will be done,” amen? If you’re going to come to Him, there must be a self‑denial, a daily cross. He mandates it, and without it there can be no fellowship.
Look over at 1 Peter, Chapter 5. We talk about this aspect in our responsibility to make ourselves available unto God. Probably a better way of expressing that would be, choose to make yourself available to be humbled by God. We make that choice. The humbling of self is by the offering up of self‑will to the wisdom, the will, the directive of God on a daily basis. So, it’s what we want to do. First Peter, Chapter 5, verse 5, says it this way, “Let all of you younger submit yourselves to the elders. Yea, all of you be subject one to another…” So, the spirit of being teachable, the spirit of being subject, or being under, or being less by choice, because those are the ones that are great in the kingdom. We don’t do it to become great in the kingdom. We do it because God has brought us to that place of humility to where our Christlikeness, this humility, works in us to become servant and prefer others. It’s a consequence of abiding in Jesus, recognizing His lordship. So, he says we, as the church in general, are to have that spirit being worked in us being subject one to another. That subjection, then, is made available as we clothe ourselves, he goes on to say, with humility. Clothing, as we understand, is something that we put upon ourselves. “Choose this day who you will serve.” I like the wording, as we look at the wisdom of God, into the yielding of ourselves to God. Verse 16 of Romans, Chapter 6, “Do you not know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness? … you were the servants of sin, but now you’ve obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which has delivered you.”
He tells us that it’s whatever our hearts are intent upon. We can tell whether it’s the old man or the new man based upon where our hearts are intent. What it is that has our minds, constantly? What would you say, today, as we are examining our own hearts? “What occupies my thoughts? How taken up am I with humility, this greatest aspect of the character of Christ?” He humbled himself by choosing to serve us with His death on the cross; amen? Some people say the humility was taking upon the incarnation, that He became a man. His becoming a man was not all there was to His humbling himself. His dying for our sins, for our deliverance, for our good, is what showed the humility of Christ. Therefore, we go back into all those different things that are the admonitions of the Holy Spirit in this particular hour for the church. Turn over to Ephesians for just a second. We begin to see that here’s the practical body ministry that comes from each and every one of us choosing to humble ourselves. Do you want to be servant or do you want to be lord? Do you want to be served? Do you want to be recognized?
Look over at 1 Peter, Chapter 5. We talk about this aspect in our responsibility to make ourselves available unto God. Probably a better way of expressing that would be, choose to make yourself available to be humbled by God. We make that choice. The humbling of self is by the offering up of self‑will to the wisdom, the will, the directive of God on a daily basis. So, it’s what we want to do. First Peter, Chapter 5, verse 5, says it this way, “Let all of you younger submit yourselves to the elders. Yea, all of you be subject one to another…” So, the spirit of being teachable, the spirit of being subject, or being under, or being less by choice, because those are the ones that are great in the kingdom. We don’t do it to become great in the kingdom. We do it because God has brought us to that place of humility to where our Christlikeness, this humility, works in us to become servant and prefer others. It’s a consequence of abiding in Jesus, recognizing His lordship. So, he says we, as the church in general, are to have that spirit being worked in us being subject one to another. That subjection, then, is made available as we clothe ourselves, he goes on to say, with humility. Clothing, as we understand, is something that we put upon ourselves. “Choose this day who you will serve.” I like the wording, as we look at the wisdom of God, into the yielding of ourselves to God. Verse 16 of Romans, Chapter 6, “Do you not know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness? … you were the servants of sin, but now you’ve obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which has delivered you.”
He tells us that it’s whatever our hearts are intent upon. We can tell whether it’s the old man or the new man based upon where our hearts are intent. What it is that has our minds, constantly? What would you say, today, as we are examining our own hearts? “What occupies my thoughts? How taken up am I with humility, this greatest aspect of the character of Christ?” He humbled himself by choosing to serve us with His death on the cross; amen? Some people say the humility was taking upon the incarnation, that He became a man. His becoming a man was not all there was to His humbling himself. His dying for our sins, for our deliverance, for our good, is what showed the humility of Christ. Therefore, we go back into all those different things that are the admonitions of the Holy Spirit in this particular hour for the church. Turn over to Ephesians for just a second. We begin to see that here’s the practical body ministry that comes from each and every one of us choosing to humble ourselves. Do you want to be servant or do you want to be lord? Do you want to be served? Do you want to be recognized?