If we bow the knee to God we will not bow down to others

Romans 11:3-4

³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? ⁴ And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

As I was leading worship last evening I was struck with the thought that if we bow our knees before God we will not bow down to others. 

As I was leading the men of our church I thought this to be particularly relevant. In some ways we have so made the gospel into, "lets just get along with everyone" in our days that we may not see the importance of not bowing our knees to other gods or humans. Most men feel the intrinsic wrong in being lorded over by anyone but God. And it is true that the demand for lordship by many of our church leaders is really generated by fleshly motives. 

I saw how clearly that our submission to God alone gives us the strength to resist the demand by human and demonic authorities to bow....

Matthew 4:8-10 (King James Version)

 ⁸Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

 ⁹And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

 ¹⁰Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

All except one of the disciples died a martyr's death. We tend to think it was primarily that they held to Jesus in faith. The truth of almost all of the early martyrs was more like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's case. It was primarily because they would not acknowledge the ruler of Rome as lord. Most were condemned to death because they would not kneel, offer up a bit of incense before an icon (image) of Caesar and declare that "Kaiser est Curios" - "Ceaser is Lord"

Daniel 3:14-20 (New American Standard Bible)

 ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?
 ¹⁵"Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?"
 ¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.
 ¹⁷"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
 ¹⁸"But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Some post modernists today would have no trouble with holding to Jesus and participating in this ceremony saying that they were talking about two different things. But Christians from the first to third centuries believed to bow the knee and offer sacrifice in reverence to a human was idolatry. 

It was.

It still is.

Our submission to human authorities ends at the point they demand for themselves what only Jesus is to be given. They are not God. When they ask to be worshiped as God we must respectfully decline.

Last night gave me a bit of a picture of how it is possible to die rather than bow the knee to a gold god, a gift of the glory of the world or a mad dictator. As we bow in reverence and worship to God we will be given the strength to not bow to others..... either in our hearts or our bodies.

I have struggled a lot with understanding how we are to respond in conflict with others as a Christian. It seems today we are constantly told to "love." I know that is completely true but I have wanted to know how that looks practically. Is loving being passive and submissive in every situation? Even a casual look at the Bible negates that concept. But rebellion is severely denounced and punished. 

It is clear that Jesus did neither. He was not rebellious nor passive. What he was was completely committed to His Father. He bowed the knee to no one save but God. Yet he was not fighting anyone. Because his submission was totally to God he could walk in freedom with others.


As we submit ourselves to God we will find the strength and wisdom to never bow to others.... even if they are our dearest love.

Philippians 2:8-11 (New American Standard Bible)

 ⁸Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
 ⁹For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
 ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 ¹¹and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.