So when the Bible tells me to be 'subject' to those over me, it means I should have an attitude of respect and honour, because God has placed them in that role, and I'm in a lesser role, a different role, less responsibility. Two, I am to be open to the direction and correction in my life, because God gives them a bigger perspective than I have; and three, we work together to accomplish common things. That's how it works. That's God's order. Now God's order absolutely works wonderfully, and I'm going to give you an example of it in a moment. I want you to have a look with me in 1 Corinthians 11:3.
Now these kinds of things create a lot of antagonism, to talk this way, because people either: neglect authority; abuse authority; or try to reason it all away. I want you just to have a look in this scripture here, in 1 Corinthians 11:3. I want you to know, that the head of every man is Christ; the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Now how many people are described in there? There is God, Christ, the man, and the woman. How many of them are given a position or a rank as being head? How many out of the four? Three. Have you noted that, three? So the Bible tells us: God is the head of Christ. He's talking about a whole lot of relationships here, and how God has ordered them so that it works. The one at the top is God, the Father; and He says: He is the head of Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now is Jesus Christ any less of a person, or any less value, than the father? No. The Bible says: these three are one. They're equal in value. They work and flow as a team.
However, Jesus Christ submits Himself to the Father's purpose. He said: the man, Christ is the head of the man. Now the only way that Christ can be the head of the man, is if the man acknowledges it, and it begins to outwork; so a person who comes to Christ, acknowledges Christ is my source of life, He is the one who gives direction, He is the one who has rightful authority over my life; he submits to that, and it becomes effective in his life. Finally, it says: the man is the head of the woman.
I want you to see, this is actually an order in relationships. Now I want to just show you how well it works, because it describes who has the leadership role, and who has the follower-ship role. Now I want to ask you this question, before we look at this, and you'll see how wonderfully God has intended that this works; and how it only works if we actually submit ourselves to the Lord, and allow His spirit to fill us. I want to show you how it works. Let me ask you this question first of all: Who is the one man, that was born into this world, that has been honoured by God, above every other man or person ever born? Who was that person? Jesus Christ. You know that. The Bible says: He has been exalted, or lifted up, and given the name above every other name, far above every principality and power; that at the name of Jesus Christ - everyone shall bow, everyone acknowledge Him. Now is that a high place or what! Is that about as high as you can get or what? How did He get there? How did He get there? You see, when He came out of heaven, He left it all behind. He left all His authority, all His power, all His glory, all His majesty, all His influence behind, and He left it, and He was just born like a helpless baby in the earth.
Now here's how headship and followership works as far as God has designed it. God's heart, and God's desire, and God's plan, is that Jesus should be raised up, and have a higher place of honour, and value, and esteem, and share in the rulership over all that God has created. That's His plan. That's His desire, and Jesus submitted to that. The Bible says, of Jesus: I am the Father of One, I'm One, We're One, I'm One with His purpose. I never get out of agreement with Him. The second thing He says: I've got no independent agendas. Whatever the Father shows to Me, He wants Me to do, I do it. In Jesus' life on the earth, there was a total oneness of relationship; and out of that, a total co-operation with the Father. He said: I don't ever start anything off My own back, just like in a marriage relationship, husband and wife, I'm submitted to whatever the Father's purpose is. The Bible says that's how God has ordered it.