Today I want to talk about the Christian life as it relates to obedience. If ever there was a word that makes us cringe, it would be obedience. "Oh boy!" we say, "Here we go again. Another drive-by guilting! Should've stayed home!" Growing up in church we would sing, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way..." We probably sang that as much as we sang Amazing Grace! They're important to sing together.
For a lot of folks, obedience has a negative connotation. Maybe it reminds you of your failures, your inability to measure up to some standard. Maybe it reminds you of someone in your past (a parent, a clergyman) who used religion to manipulate you. A lot of men, husbands, insist their wives "obey" them. Parents insist their children "obey" them. Its great so long as really love Jesus!
Not everyone who insists on obedience does so out of love for us. Some people throw this word around like a hand grenade, and do a lot of damage in the name of God. Obedience is a power word. Usually when someone insists on our obedience it's a "red flag." Some people use this word to conceal their ambitions, hidden agenda, and selfishness. Emotionally abusive people love to use this word as they tread all over us like a doormat. Obedience is one of those words that's just apt to oppress as liberate.
Sometimes we think of obedience as something foreign, or unnatural to us. We think of obedience at one extreme and non-obedience at the other extreme. But this isn't true at all. From a Biblical perspective, we're always living in obedience to someone, or something. And so our obedience can be directed toward God, or it can be dislocated away from God.
Let me share some examples of obedience...
Obeying Flesh. Romans 6:12 says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." Some translations read "passions", "lusts." We can be mastered by sin just as readily as anything. A young man was sitting in my office, describing the power of his heroine addiction. It's an impulse he feels he must obey. He vividly described the misery of how his body reacts when he disobeys his addiction. So we obey our addictions. We obey our lusts. We obey our appetite for caffeine, alcohol, sugars, carbs. We obey our materialistic impulses--the idol of bigger, better, faster, newer, shinier. We obey our technological impulses, as glow of devices transfixes us.
Another young man told me how he must obey his sexual urges, despite the obvious costs to his family. His sexual desire has become a law unto itself, a law he must obey to be true to himself.
Few masters are more ruthless than our desires. At first our lusts isolate us from others. We withdrawal to do our thing. Then they demand greater commitment. Time, energy, resources, relationships, life. At first we try to manage them, until they finally consume us, destroying us in the end.
Obeying Traditions. In Mark 7:8 Jesus observes how we "lay aside the commands of God to obey the traditions of men." Sometimes being Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, American, Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Liberal becomes trumps all else, even obeying God. The masses didn't crucify Jesus because he was the Son of God, or was obeying God. They killed him because he didn't obey their traditions. Instead of serving God, sometimes become servants of our religious/political ideologies.
Obeying Authorities. In Acts 5:29, Peter/Apostles decide, "We must obey God rather than human beings!" The seduction of obeying authorities is we can always deflect blame. "I'd serve God, but..." "I'd be a witness, but..." "I'd pray out loud, except..." "I'd disagree, but the prof might..." There will always be authorities who will seek to suppress, punish, or even persecute us if don't step in line, obey their protocol. If we'd obeyed every authority, Christian faith would be extinct. Its gonna get worse.
Obeying People. In John 12:43 Bible describes how people "love human praise more than praise from God." How many times have your felt conviction about some great thing God put on your heart, only to realize that your spouse, a boyfriend/ girlfriend, your kids, a friend was sneering at you. So instead of pressing forward, you relented, and gave in to the pressure. Our need for affirmation, and approval is so strong, we'll cave rather than risk the scorn of others. It's like a law has been passed: "I have to be liked." I need a facebook thumbs up, a Twitter retweet, to have the validation I need in life. Do we obey men, or do we obey God?
Obeying the Law. Galatians 2:16 says, "...we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law" (NLT). The Bible describes how people believe they be accepted by God by obeying all the laws God has given. So like the Rich Young Ruler, people try to establish their own righteousness before God. Remember how the Rich Young Ruler boasted about keeping all the commands of God from birth? He was pretty high on himself until Jesus told him to go sell everything he owned and give it to the poor! His attitude was, "I will do anything for God, but I won't do that..."
Maybe your not trying to like Rich Young Ruler today. But we all have our checklists of what a good person should be and do. Our checklists become a source of pride for us, and they became a sort of litmus test by which we gage other's sincerity, spirituality, or faith. "I don't ever miss church. I read my Bible. I've been baptized. I tithe. I volunteer. I go to Bible study. I go on missions trips. I care about orphans, widows, prisoners, the hungry, the sick. . . I, I, I..." Our selective, cherry-picked lists can give us a false sense of confidence before God. God's standard is Galatians 3:10, "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
Please take a look at this list. Who or what do you most obey? "I have to obey this desire. I have to obey my denomination, my party platform, my family's wishes. I have to obey my boss, my supervisor, my professor, the IRS, the gov't, elected officials. I have to obey my friends, my family, be accepted by my culture. I have to obey my spiritual checklist so I can justify how good a person I am before God."
Jesus' obedience wasn't oriented around these things... it was oriented to Father. One way we can think about obedience is who/what you always YES to.
John 8:28-30 Jesus says, "... I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." Philippians 2:8, "... being found in the appearance as a man, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to death--even death on a cross!" Hebrews 5:7-8, "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son, though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered."
Some things I'm learning about obedience. First, obedience is all about relationship, and its all about love. Dann Spader says, that "obedience is God's love language." The "heart" of obedience is pleasing the Father in everything--i.e. in all we say and do. Pleasing God, not fearing God, ought to eclipse other concern we have in obedience. Jesus said I always do the things that are pleasing to him. 2 John 1:6 says, "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." 1 John 5:3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome."
Second, obedience is God's prescription for blessing. God's commands carry a blessing, a promise, a reward. God's promise to the children of Abraham is that if they obeyed God, it would go well for them, they would live a long life, and receive inheritance. If we sow obedience, we reap God's very best in our lives.
In Luke 11:28 Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it." In Matthew 7:24, the wise man is the one who "hears" Jesus' words and "puts them into practice!" I even noticed in 1 John 3:22 that obedience makes our prayers more powerful. John says, "If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him."
Third, grace is the basis for our relationship with God. We are saved through faith in Christ alone, by virtue of Christ's sacrifice, His perfect righteousness, His blood. The best we can do is respond to God's offer of mercy. We can confess Jesus as Lord. We can repent and turn to God. We can pledge our lives to him in baptism. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast."
Last, obedience is evidence our faith is alive, not dead. James says faith without works is DOA (James 2:17). 1 John 2:5-6 says, "But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus lived." If our faith is alive, real, vibrant, sincere... it will show itself in how we live. Obedience is inevitable fruit of saving faith. In the end, God judges our faith by every word spoken, and every deed done, whether in public or private.
Romans 6:16ff... who will you obey?