Preface: This week I spoke at our student-led worship service on the topic of obedience. For weeks — even months — God has been pressing this on my heart, and challenging me deeply in it. The following is a revised copy of what I shared. If you are looking for a quick five-minute read, this is not the post for you. It will take between fifteen and twenty-five minutes to peruse this post. Should you dare to inhale its contents, I pray these words would be given wings by the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. Blessings.
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A very standard definition of the word ‘obey’; as defined by dictionary.com, means “to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of” another. I think there are different areas in each of our lives where we dislike the idea of obedience. For some of us it’s in relationship to our parents, to a teacher or professor, to a boss, to res rules, or to our provincial and national laws. But by nature, we want to be our own masters, and it often gets under our skin when somebody else tells us how to live our lives.
Whether we like it or not, we are all obeying something. In Romans 6:16 Paul says, ’Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?’ There are only ever two options when it comes to who your master is: you’re either obeying God, or you’re obeying sin. When we think we’re just doing what we want — or obeying our own desires — we’re actually being slaves to “self” or to the “flesh”, which is equated with sin in the Bible. Paul also tells us what our “wages” will be, depending on which master we choose to serve. In verse 23 he says, ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ So we have a choice of whom we will serve; and based on that choice, we will receive either death or eternal life for our wages.
God has pretty strong opinions about our obedience. In 1 Samuel 15 God commanded King Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekite people and to destroy all of their possessions and livestock (vs. 2-3). However, Saul spared the the Amalekite king, and the best of the livestock for the Israelites to sacrifice to God. Now, from our perspective, this doesn’t seem so bad. Well, didn’t Saul obey God? He destroyed the Amalekites and all of their worthless possessions. From a human perspective, wouldn’t God perhaps be pleased to have the best of the livestock sacrificed to Him?
The very blunt answer to that questions is no. In verses 22-23 the prophet Samuel says to Saul, ’“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry…”’ Saul’s disobedience caused him to lose his throne, which would be later taken by David, and with it, he lost God’s favour.
God takes disobedience very seriously. Even with all of Israel’s laws involving sacrifices, God still valued complete obedience more than sacrifice. He gets right to the attitude behind the action when He says, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry…” Our failure to obey is equal to worshiping something or someone else — usually ourselves — instead of worshiping God.
Obedience is not only a matter of worship, but also a matter of trust. I’m sure you’re familiar with Proverbs 3:5-6; it says, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.’ When Saul decided to keep the Amalekite king alive, and to spare all the best of the spoil, he was trusting in his own understanding. Part of obeying God is doing what He says when we can’t see what the outcome is going to be. Abraham had this kind of obedience. Hebrews 11:8 says that ‘By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.’ I think we’re often hesitant to obey God because He doesn’t show us what the consequences of our obedience will be. But the reality is that the outcome of our obedience is actually none of our business. We’re just supposed to trust God with it. One of my favourite authors, Oswald Chambers, said that “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” If we have faith in God’s character, we will obey Him because we know that He won’t fail. Ps. 18:30 says, ‘As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.’ A huge part of obeying God is believing that what He says and what the Bible says about Him is absolutely true. If we really believe that ‘His way is perfect’ and that ‘He is a shield’ to everyone who trusts Him, then we have nothing to be afraid of in obeying Him.
So where do we look to see what this kind of obedience looks like? We have the perfect example in Jesus. Romans 5:19 says that because of Jesus’ obedience, we all have access to righteousness. Another familiar passage is Philippians 2:8; it says, ’And being found in appearance as a man, He [meaning Jesus] humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.’ Hebrews 5:8 says further, that ‘Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.’ I think few of us would think of Jesus as someone who ‘learned’ obedience. We know that as the Son of God, He never sinned, which also means that He never disobeyed. But even still, His suffering taught Him obedience. In Luke 22, when Jesus is praying before He’s arrested, He prays, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” As He was praying, God actually sent an angel to strengthen Him. Then it says that ‘He prayed more earnestly’ and that His sweat turned into drops of blood. Even Jesus, being completely perfect and sinless, agonized over this act of obedience that was right in front of Him. But ultimately He put aside His own comfort and submitted to God’s will.
Can you imagine where we would be if Jesus had decided to disobey God’s command? Jesus’ willingness to obey, even when it meant intense suffering, is the reason why we get to have eternal life. And as His followers, we are called to the same kind of obedience as Jesus showed us in His lifetime. Our obedience is actually the proof that we give the world that we are followers and disciples of Jesus. 1 John 2:3-6 says, ‘Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked.’ If we’re going to claim to know Jesus, we need to obey Him and live the way He did.
This whole concept of obedience seems pretty overwhelming. I find it pretty intimidating to look at this and try to wrap my head around it. To be honest, sometimes when I think about obedience, it seems like a burden. How am I ever supposed to reach this standard that Jesus set?
I can tell you right now, if you’re going to try being obedient so that you can earn favour with God, or to make Him love you more, you will find it a heavy and exhausting burden. I know that when I’m trying to do all the “right” things, I often feel dry, tired and discouraged inwardly. This attitude of, “If I don’t do this, if I forget to do that, if I don’t read my Bible every day, if I don’t pray for these ten things every day, if…etc. then God is going to be disappointed and won’t love me as much” — this puts all the weight on what I can do to make God proud of me or love me more.
We need to straighten out our perspective about this. God already loves us to His fullest, endless capacity. There is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less than He does right now. Titus 3 tells us that we have not been saved ‘by works of righteousness which we have done’ but only by Jesus’ mercy towards us. It says that God poured out the Holy Spirit on us ‘abundantly through Jesus Christ’. We’ve already been totally justified before God. No amount of good things that we do can justify us any further. It also says in 1 John 4:19 that ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ If Jesus already loved us before we ever even knew Him, He will keep on loving us now. The point is, if we obey God to try to make Him love us more, we’re missing the point. Yes, obedience does bring God joy. But He doesn’t want us to obey just because we’re obligated. He wants us to obey because we love Him.
We can compare this to how we relate to our parents. I know growing up, initially obedience was something I did because I wanted to avoid getting disciplined. To me, disobedience equalled losing a toy, sitting in a corner, or a spanking, and early on I obeyed because I wanted to avoid these things. As I grew older, and even still, obedience has become less of a chore and more of a pleasure. I don’t obey my parents because I “have” to — and actually, I don’t “have” to obey them anymore — I obey them because I want to show that I love and respect them. And it goes even further than that. I know that when my parents give me a boundary or a guideline they do it because they love me, and want only the very best for me.
Learning to obey my parents is also a way that God teaches me why I need to obey Him. Initially looking into the Bible, the commands we’re given as Christians can come across as restrictive, just like parents’ rules can sometimes seem restrictive to us. But just like a loving parent, God gives us these boundaries because He loves us. When a parent tells a little child not to touch those shiny silver bars in front of that bright red light that seems to be producing warmth, the child doesn’t necessarily understand that mommy and daddy are telling him to keep his hands off because they don’t want him to get burned on the electric heater. To the kid, its a bright shiny warm thing, and he’s curious what it’ll feel like or do if he touches it. But parents know that as soon as he touches that metal, he’s going to burn his hands and it will hurt.
I know this is a bit of a cliche analogy, but it’s relevant. God gives us boundaries and commands because He wants to keep us away from what He knows is going to hurt and harm us. This is where that key trust factor comes in. Do we trust that what God is telling us is actually the very best, even if we do not see how disobeying Him could hurt us?
Back to the little kid analogy. When that little boy grows up, he will eventually realize that if you touch the metal on the front of an electric heater, it’s gonna hurt. Eventually he sees the value and protection in obeying that cautionary command his parents gave him.
This is kind of what happens as we get to know God and His commandments better. If we want to get past the “obey because I said so” stage, we need to get into the Bible and understand why God gives us these commandments. The more you dig, the more you are going to discover that He does it purely out of love. And as we realize this, the response of our hearts to His loving commands shouldn’t be one of obligation, but one of love and trust for our heavenly Father. When we obey Him, we can do so knowing that He has the very best plans for us, and that He is protecting us from harm and asking us to trust Him for something better than what we can see.
This isn’t to say that obedience is going to be easy. It’s not. But the more you get to know God and His heart, the more you are going to understand the love that is behind His commands. In the meantime, we just need to practice obedience because He is trustworthy. Sometimes it does feel like we are just doing it because it is the right thing; I don not always feel like reading my Bible or praying or staying away from something — whether it’s an inappropriate movie, a harmful activity, a toxic relationship, or anything that I know is not honouring God — but when my feelings are not propelling me forward, I need to choose to obey God out of knowing that His character to be good and faithful. When we consistently choose obedience, the action will work itself into our hearts, and we will find greater joy and fulfillment in obeying God than in disobeying Him.
One of the greatest parts of obedience is that we don’t have to try to do it on our own. One of my personal favourite passages is Hebrews 4:14-16: ‘Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ Later in Hebrews it says in chapter 13:5, ‘…For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”’ Don’t try to obey God out of your own strength or virtues. Go boldly to God and ask Him for help to obey, and then trust and believe that He will follow through.
songs of stippled stardust 