“Obedience Because It's Obedience”

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Should we base what our beliefs and obedience to Christian teaching on how it will work out? Is law meant to be determined by what is good for the most people? Should the laws of a country, or a household, or a religion be based on the outcomes that experience tells us will come from those laws?

It’s a matter of faith to believe that God’s laws, as written, are to be followed implicitly, whether we expect the outcomes of following them to be good, bad, or  even impossible.

For example: Should we teach that faithfulness in marriage matters because it will bring stability to society (which it will)? Or because it is the will of God for his people? What is our stated reason for obedience? Faith in God regardless of the outcomes, or is it just the expected outcomes?

For another example: Should we be generous to others because it will create bonds and close friendships between the receiver and the giver (which it will)? Or because it is the example and teaching that we have from the King of kings whom we follow? Again, what is our stated reason for obedience? Is it faith in God regardless of the outcomes, or is it just the expected outcomes?

For yet another example: Should we deteremine if a religious practice is appropriate because we perceive how it will work out either like or unlike another religious group's practice? Or will we know because the word of God teaches its rightness or wrongness? Yet again, what is our stated reason for obedience in things like this? Is it faith in God's way regardless of the outcomes, or is it just the expected outcomes?

Let’s be clear within each of our hearts that our reasons for obedience are a matter of our faith in God. Christian faithfulness isn’t mostly motivated by a reaction against others, a societal advancement program, a self-improvement set of habits, or a road to psychological comfort. All of those things are helpful outcomes that likely follow Christian faithfulness, but our obedience to him must motivated, above all, by our sincere belief in him simply for his own sake.

“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 listen than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22)

- Dan Lankford, minister

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