The Role of Obedience

What role does obedience play in living the “Christian” life? This is the point in the lesson where the answers usually begin with: “we should.” I am no longer at all interested in what “we should” be doing. As a matter of fact, I’m becoming less interested in what you are doing. I am finding it hard enough to concentrate on what I am doing.

Please know that I do not think I am accomplishing anything for the Kingdom of God simply because I have a keyboard at my disposal. Writing this post is not “doing” anything. If we can read or hear God’s words and walk away unchanged, then I have no illusions of making a difference with my words. It’s not like I can phrase it better than He did, nor do I have better understanding of language than the inventor of it!

Yet I know that the words for life are contained within the holy word of God. “They wouldn’t obey my instructions even though obedience would have given them life.” (Ezekiel 20:13) Based on that and that alone, the role obedience plays in life is to give us life itself. However, we needlessly complicate obedience with our excuses and rationale. It’s ironic really. If my children give me excuses as to why they don’t obey, I punish them. There is no logical reason for disobedience. However, if I disobey my Father, I expect, and if I’m completely honest, I think I deserve, mercy and grace. I do, after all, have some very good reasons for my indiscretions.

But what about God? What are His thoughts on the obedience issue? If we go back to the beginning, (literally, in the beginning…) we find that the first sin issue in history wasn’t a sexual issue, inappropriate language, or a lack of a consistent devotional life. It was simply not following God’s instructions. It was disobedience. That one little misfortune led to serious consequences. How can we think that our misfortunes will not have lingering ramifications on our lives? Adam and Eve would surely differ with us on that prevailing notion.

So how did we get to the point in our spiritual lives where we minimalize obedience? We would never vocalize that it’s not important. In fact, we would defend the necessity of obedience with vicious rhetoric. Therein lies the problem. We verbally consent to the necessity of obedience without ever practically being obedient.

“Your people are whispering behind your back. They talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors saying, ‘Come on, let’s have some fun! Let’s go listen to the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying.’ So they come pretending to be sincere and sit before you listening. But they have no intention of doing what I tell them. They express love with their mouths, but their hearts seek only after personal gain. You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t do it!” (Ezekiel 33:30-32 NLT)

What a perfect picture of our time! This passage describes both you and me. Much like the New Testament passage in which the apostle’s ask for more faith and Jesus responds that they should simply use what they have (Luke 17), the last thing we need is more knowledge or rules. We only need use what we already know. We need to stop using our rationale and start using our prudence. To continue in the same vein (disobedience) only exacerbates our issues.

So what are our issues? I think the passage sums most of them up perfectly. It begins with our insincerity. For many of us, our Sunday routines are very insincere. It’s not that we don’t want to be in church, we very much do, but the “real” us is the one left at home. We fear people knowing who we really are. We fear that if we really tell someone that we are struggling in our marriages, our finances, our parenting, or our habits, then they will judge us harshly. We would rather put on our Sunday mask with our Sunday clothes and pretend that everything is fine. The effect that has is to make everything about our worship insincere. The only biblical instructions for worship are that it be done “in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23) In order for us to be obedient to that command, we must bring the “real” us regardless of the humiliation we might endure.

The second issue is our intentions. Do we express love with our mouths but only seek after personal gain? Of course we would deny this. The kind of honesty that it would take to admit this though is the same kind that will cause our worship to be sincere. I am a great example of this.

Years ago, I was in a difficult ministry situation. I felt led to fast for a period of 30 days. It was a very trying but beneficial time spiritually. After the fast, I expected God to give me the freedom to resign. He didn’t! In fact, it was clearly revealed that He wanted me to stay in the difficult situation. I was furious with Him. I expected Him to honor and reward my efforts by giving me what I so desperately wanted. My whole fast was revealed to be a sham because of the insincerity of it. My intentions were for personal gain not for Godliness. I am sure that you have a similar story. (Feel free to share it in the comments section.)

The third issue is actually the way we view church. I will write in more depth on this in my next post, but many of us to treat the worship service as entertainment. We like the gossip. We like to check out who is wearing what. We do this in such a way that we insure that neither worship nor service occur while we are occupied on Sunday mornings. So we, like the Israelites, hear what is said but don’t do it.

So what’s the big deal about obedience? Obedience is the only way to connect with our Father. But we misuse scripture as justification for our indiscretions. We rationalize our disobedience because we actually intended to obey. But our best of intentions is negated by our lack of actually obeying. No amount of piety can make restitution for disobedience. God is not interested in what “we should” be doing. He is very interested in what we are doing.