Submitting to God rather than to personal desires for pleasure prevents wars and fights among people. Submitting requires governing oneself by faith within the framework of God's laws and principles. Submitting to governing authorities occurs because all authority comes from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Submitting to civil government, church authority, and family authority follows from recognizing that God rules over His creation. Submitting to one another occurs in the fear of God. Submitting means choosing to suffer evil rather than to do evil when differences arise. Submitting allows God to judge fairly without respect of persons. Submitting excludes cases where authority forces the breaking of God's commands, in which case one submits instead to God's instruction to obey Him rather than men. Submitting permits appeal to the abuser or to God for relief and allows flight from persecution. Submitting in the workplace means obeying masters according to the flesh in sincerity of heart while fearing God. Submitting recognizes that complaining against appointed leaders constitutes complaining against God. Submitting follows the example of Jesus Christ, who committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Submitting means not rendering evil for evil but overcoming evil with good. Submitting as bondservants of God uses liberty to serve rather than as a cloak for vice. Submitting accepts wrong in disputes among brethren rather than going to law before the unrighteous. Submitting turns the other cheek and goes the second mile when insulted or taken advantage of. Submitting occurs cheerfully and sincerely as an act of faith and love rather than grimly or resentfully. Submitting establishes peace and leaves God free to work in the situation.

Submitting means to arrange oneself in order under authority, as the Greek word hupotasso indicates. This principle touches virtually every aspect of life and produces freedom when followed. Submitting differs from obeying because it involves yielding out of respect for superior authority, affection, persuasion, or compulsion, and it engages a person's will in a way that develops character. Submitting proves difficult because of miseducation through traditions received from family, neighborhood, city, state, region, and nation, combined with attitudes that seek to gratify the self. These traditions create conflict with the traditions of God. Liberty consists of submitting to truth rather than doing what is right in one's own eyes. Biblical submission means respecting divinely appointed authority out of respect for Christ. Jesus Christ submitted to corrupt officials because no authority exists except what God permits. This act of faith prevents endless cycles of retaliation. Everyone lives under some form of authority, whether from God, other people, law, circumstance, or nature, and must submit to preserve liberty. Submitting to the law of gravity, for example, preserves the freedom to live. When authority proves oppressive or incompetent, submitting still applies unless the demand requires breaking the law of God.