Submitting to Authority

In this episode, we talk about what it truly means to submit to authority through a biblical lens. Looking at teachings in Romans and 1 Peter, we explore who authority is, why God established it, and what submission looks like in our everyday lives. As Christians, we are called to trust the leaders God has allowed in place—whether that’s government officials, presidents, law enforcement, or those in leadership over us—believing that God is ultimately in control.

At the same time, we are not called to be doormats. Our ultimate authority is God, not man. While we are called to live with humility, respect, and obedience, we are also called to stand firm in Scripture and follow what is right in God’s eyes. When human authority goes against God’s Word, our obedience belongs to Him first.

This isn’t about blind obedience—it’s about a heart posture that honors God, reflects Christ, and shows His love through our actions. Join us as we learn how to walk this out with grace, wisdom, and bold faith, staying rooted in truth while living in submission the way God intended.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hey guys, you're listening to a Rebel No More podcast with Jane Fearstock. In today's podcast episode, we're going to discuss submission to authority and what that is, who authority is, and what that looks like. And I think that this topic, um, I know that I did a podcast recently on submission, and I mostly kind of focused more on submitting to a spouse in a household setting, in like a relationship marriage setting. And so when we submit to authority, it's along the same level, but like obviously it's not your spouse. So first and foremost, uh, authority would be, in my opinion, anybody that has the um authority to uh hand out some sort of something if you don't obey authority. I don't know. So I guess the best example that can come to my mind that's a little uh air quote ridiculous would be let's say um I'm 45 and I take my 13-year-old to a water park, and there is a 17-year-old uh lifeguard who is taking care of the water slides, and let's say I decide I don't want to follow the rules that are posted on a sign, and then I'm gonna not follow what this 17-year-old lifeguard proceeds to tell me to do. I, even though I am older and yes, an adult, and not a sign giving out directions, that doesn't automatically make me the authoritative person in that situation. In this situation, it's gonna be the sign that posted telling me the rules, and the other authority uh person in this situation is gonna be the lifeguard, even though the lifeguard is younger than me. Whoever it doesn't matter who the person is in that authoritative position, whether it's the government, the police, leaders, um you know, little minor lifeguards that have a job that get paid to tell you the rules. And anytime you go against authority, you're disobeying God. Like I know that sounds maybe that might sound harsh for someone, but that's the truth. We when we submit or when we choose to submit to authority, we are choosing to put our other wants or desires that our body is saying, Hey, this is a 17-year-old kid back in that previous example. Um, how is he or she going to tell you, who is 45 years old, how to sit on a water slide to slide down it? It doesn't matter that person is the authoritative person, that person is setting the rules, and it doesn't matter how old you are, if you are going to ride whatever it is that is, we're gonna respect the authority that is put in that place in that time. Not any other reason, other than that is the authoritative person in that position. In Romans 13, 1 and 2, or 1, I believe it tells us that God does have authority and he puts us under this authority. Um, and not to like, I believe Romans 13, uh, one and two basically tells us, you know, yes, God appoints this authority, whether it's local government, police, or leaders. And we are called to um not fight, we are called not to rebel against them. Uh, we're not called to push against laws or rules, or you know, just like in that uh example earlier, you know, God put that lifeguard in that position for whatever reason. I none of my business. I am to honor that person, that authority by honoring that lifeguard in that situation. I am now honoring God. I am dying to the flesh by saying, you know what, yeah, you are older. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Age in this situation does not matter. Age, there is nothing in scripture that I've that I've personally come across. And please, if you do, I'm definitely open to correction. Point me to scripture where it does does say those things, and I'll be glad to read them. But for right now, all I know is that God allows certain authority in certain people in certain positions for his reasoning. God doesn't um God didn't ask me what I thought about putting uh our local police person in office. Uh, God did not ask me what my opinion was when he appointed the president to this position. And and I'm pretty certain the rest of you were also not involved in any of those kind of conversations either. So as a Christian and as someone who wants to honor God and someone who wants to um let our actions reflect the gospel, we're gonna honor authority. And and we're not going to label this authority authoritative authoritative person. I'm sorry, authority. I don't know how to say that. As, you know, oh, they're younger, I'm older, I'm smarter, I'm wiser. And you know what? Some of those things could very well be true, but in in that moment, it doesn't matter because we're called to submit to authority. Doesn't matter. I want to say in uh 1 Peter, we were we're actually in my Bible study on Mondays. Uh it's with a group of ladies at church. Uh, we are going over 1 Peter, and in 1 Peter uh 2, 13 and 14, I want to say it, you know, it reminds us to respect the roles, to respect our leaders. And the really cool thing about this um approach, when we, if you really sit back and think about this, and and um the Bible tells us, you know, when we in I believe I mentioned this in the previous podcast about submission, and I also probably mentioned it earlier when I first started this, that when we submit to authority or our spouses, if we just just submit, we are honoring God by doing that, and the reason I say that is because when you follow the life that you're called to follow when you accept Jesus Christ into your heart, we're supposed to uh essentially be like Jesus, live like him. I don't know, live like him. I don't know if that's true. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. But I know that we're supposed to behave like him. We're supposed to um love others, like again, in the Bible, love is an action, it's not um something you say and like you just believe it. It's it's an action. Like we're called to do these things, to honor God, to submit, to you know, just be able to say, you know what? I personally don't want to submit, but I'm going to submit because that's what I'm called to do. You may not like the situation, you may not agree with the situation, you may not even have anything towards the situation, but at the end of the day, you're called to submit and just don't let, you know, don't be nasty by us submitting, especially when we don't want to, like that shows other believer or not other well, I guess it could, it could show other believers, but it also shows people who may have a foot in with, okay, you know, I think I believe in Jesus, but I'm not 100% there yet. And so those people, there's a lot of people out there who struggle with faith. Faith is such a hard thing to struggle with because you're literally putting your um you're saying when you when you say you have faith, you're basically saying, like, I believe that you are God and you are who you say you are. I believe that um, I believe that you are who you say you are. I believe that all of this happened, and nothing's gonna shake my me from believing in this. But now I have to put my belief into action, and that's you know, that's really like like I'm saying right here, even though we don't want to respect, like in that moment, we're still human beings, you guys. We still have emotions and we still have that desire to want to act out when we're wronged or belittled or embarrassed, whatever it is, whatever causes you to ruffle or um not be good to submit to authority or a a spouse or whatever, you got to get right with God and you need to let God take over that part of your life because if we could do it ourselves, we would 100% do it. If I could have chosen, and I know I sound like I'm blaming and I'm not, but listen, if I could have chosen to remove any and all desires out of my body to want to submit completely and totally to God and listen to what He said, I would do it immediately because that's what we're supposed to do. But I'm a person, I have 42-ish years, 43-ish years of living in the ways of my own desires. And it's gonna take time for my my desires to quiet and allow my spirit and soul to be louder to conquer the desire to want to rebel against submission. And once you understand this, and once you're okay with it, I I don't I can't speak on behalf of anybody but myself, but I can tell you right now, I really did struggle with submission, and I really did struggle with rebellion. And and I personally feel like if I can get this concept, there's just something about it that it's just like God said to submit, God said that he puts these um leaders in in these positions, and um he tells us, you know, in Titus to cooperate and to um be good and to obey and to do things without being told multiple times. Um we're just we're called just to be good people and to do the right thing, no matter who's around, how we feel about it, it's hard. Nothing in this walk with with trying to model Jesus's behavior is is it is easy because I'm gonna tell you right now, anybody who tells you that picking up their cross and putting down their flesh and dying to their fleshly behaviors and just picking up their their cross saying this was easy, well, if it's easy for them, I'm I wish that was easy for me, but I that is not easy for me. And I'm over here like doing the best that I can through Jesus to try to be honoring to God the way I'm supposed to, and you know, that alone in itself takes time and effort and patience, but you know, um at the end of the day, we as Christians, as followers of Jesus, who have picked up our cross, who want to follow Jesus, who want to act like him, we are called to submit to authority. That means whether you like or dislike our current president, we are to submit to him. We don't have to like what he's doing, we don't have to agree with what he's doing, but we do need to submit. We do need to trust that God put that president in office because he wanted him there. I'm not God, I can't answer that. I don't know a lot of these things, just like you don't know a lot of these things, but I do know that it doesn't matter what our personal feelings are about a president, whether it's our current or former presidents, our opinions as a Christian in my in my in my opinion, and this is my podcast, my thing. I personally feel like whoever is sitting in that oval office is respectfully none of my business. Yes, you can vote, yes, you should vote, yes, you should be involved, but you need to do it respectfully, and you need to submit when it's right. I really am gonna repeat this. We need to submit when it's right and stand firm when it's wrong. In Acts 529, it says that we must obey God rather than people. So, yes, we are called to submit to our spouses and to authority, whether that's our president, whether that's a police officer, whether whatever, whatever that authority is in your life, we are called to submit to it. We are not called to submit if it goes against God's word. So basically, don't be following someone else into sin. If that authority person tells you you're about to, let's let's use this example. Let's say I'm gonna sit down on that water slide. We've all been on a water slide. You sit with your feet, you know, in front of you and and you're sitting and you go down it. Let's say that person tells you, oh no, you can't sit, you have to stand up, or not stand up, sit, you know, whatever. You know it's wrong, you know it goes against everything, you know you're gonna get hurt. You 100% know that everything that this person is saying goes against God's word. You are called to stand firm, you are not called to submit. We are only called to submit when we are right when it's right. We are not called to submit when we follow into sin. So if our local leaders or pastor, I mean, I don't I don't know if you'd call a pastor or leader, but a pastor or anybody in an authoritative position, whether they teach us, they guide us, and they they push us down this pit of sin. No, we do not follow that. We but you still can be respectful without following it. And that's the thing. You don't have to be mean, we don't have to be disrespectful. When someone is not acting godly and is telling us to submit or expects that, just you know, submit when you know it's right, when you know it's biblical, when you know it lines up with God. And if it doesn't line up with God, and if it doesn't line up with scripture, then you know what? You stand firm and you be respectful. Literally, be respectful. God's not telling us to be a doormat, God is not telling us to stay in abuse, God does not want us to follow anyone into sin. God wants us to follow God's word, not people. And people are going to get it wrong. We do it all the time. That is why it isn't so important that we meditate on God's word and that we know scripture. Because Satan will get in your mind a little bit and just be like, you know, is this person really author? Did God really put this person here? I mean, look at this person. He's going to twist scripture and he's gonna twist the situation to get you to respond out of the world instead of acting godly. That is why it is so important, again, that you get in the word, that you submit when you know it's right, when you know it lines up with the word. And if it doesn't, you go to God and you ask, what do I do? Obviously, you can't do that if it's in a situation that you need to act right away. But always go to prayer, always go to God. And most importantly, just always, always, always stand firm. Stand firm when something's wrong and be respectful. That's that's the biggest part. Like we can be, we can be respectful and we can still follow God. We don't have to be mean, we don't have to point out, oh, that's a dirty, rotten sin. I'm not being a part of that, I'm out of here. You be respectful and you remove yourself from whatever situation that you need to remove yourself from. But you know, as someone who is following God, I would like my actions to reflect my God. And so when I did start my relationship with God, the first thing he had me do was get rid of social media and only post things that were uh honoring God or um maybe pointing someone somewhere I've been told to post. I I don't know, that might sound a little odd to some of you. And if you've listened to my past um podcasts and especially the testimony, you will see that or hear that I did struggle with submission, I did struggle with rules, I did struggle with authority, I did struggle with rebellion, but I don't anymore. And I really try to uh be respectful and you know try to be, you know, humble when when you can be. And I really try not to be rebellious, and that is just something Jesus just needs to be consistently Holy Spirit is always working on that because that was the the biggest thing that kind of rode in on my my journey was the the rebellion and that um lack of desire to want to submit or to even be respectful at some points. But anyway, thankfully Jesus took care of took care of that. But I guess at the end of the day, my whole thing to today's podcast is even if we don't like our current president, and even if you do like our current president, God put him in office. I don't know why. I don't think you know why. None of us do. God knows, I don't. But while he's there and he's leading our country, we are called to respect him. We are called called to honor his authority because guess what? Whether you like Donald Trump as our president or you dislike Donald Trump as our president, he is a president, he is staying the president until he's done, and we are going to um pray for him and we are going to um do exactly what God calls us to do. And I think that if you don't like Trump or or the president, whoever's in office at that time, I think that'll speak volumes. If you submit to authority, um be respectful and lead by example, I think that we will see a lot of change if we as Christians can can do that. And I know it starts somewhere. I, you know, I try to post things that God only tells me to post. I'm not perfect, I fall short all the time. But um, anyways, I hope that if you needed to hear this, if if this is something that you struggle with, I hear you, I feel it, I've lived it. Uh, you know, give it to God. God, God will get that out of you. God will get it out of you. I don't know how quick, but but um he will get that out of you. Um, if you guys would like to uh submit a prayer request, email me questions, what have you, you can email me. My email address is jccrim81 at gmail.com. You can reach out on Facebook or Know more, and if you like TikTok, you can also get a hold of me on TikTok. It's my personal account, it's uh Jane F A Z seventeen. Thank you guys so very much for listening. I hope you have a blessed day.