Obedience and Submission
Contemplation…
Obedience and Submission¹
How beautiful is obedience, and how beautiful is submission! They are two fruits of humility, and of proper discipline. They are also signs of meekness and love…
And in obedience there is also self-denial and a renunciation of one’s personal will. Without doubt, obedience grows and becomes greater when a person obeys in what is against his own will, and subjects his will to another.
The Lord Christ Himself obeyed the Father. He obeyed unto death, even the death of the Cross. And He said, “I did not come to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me,” and He also said, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”
What are the limits of obedience?
But to what extent does a person obey and submit? Is it absolute obedience? And what does he do if obedience collides with his conscience? Should he submit—out of humility—or obey his conscience, even if they describe him as proud?!
Here we say that obedience must be understood with wisdom. Obedience first—and before everything and everyone—is directed to God; then after that we obey people within the scope of our obedience to God. But if the two kinds of obedience collide, there is no doubt that a person’s conscience then listens to the saying of the Apostle Peter: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Thus the Apostle said: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1). Truly, then, how beautiful are obedience and submission—but in the Lord.
If you obey a father or a guide in something contrary to the commandments of God, then both of you fall into a pit… this is when the contradiction is clear.
Be obedient, my brother, and submit in everything, with all humility, even unto death.
Deny yourself. Deny your will. Deny your dignity. But do not deny your conscience…
-
An article by His Grace Bishop Shenouda, Bishop of Education – Al-Keraza Magazine – First Year, August 1965
For better translation support, please contact the center.
