Obedience Gets a Bad Rap.

If the New Testament is a message about how the Creator intended the creation to operate.. If it is a book that describes the method of operation that fulfills and completes the human being, then obedience isn't a bad thing.

Take a look at the picture to your left. As you cross the Pecos River you see two warning signs. One says "No Parking," the other says, "No Diving." I'm thinkin' that if the sign says "No Diving From Bridge" then its probably a good idea not to dive from the bridge. It's a warning that could be a lifesaver. Still some people ignore good advice and dive from the bridge.

Because we must be insane, we take the attitude that this life saving advice is some kind of inconvenience. We see obedience as an obstacle blocking our joy rather than an expressway to it. Don't you just hate being sure of the wrong thing?

We were deceived.

Obedience isn't a burden, it's a relief.

We should thank God, needed the info.

Obedience is working in concert with God's design. His design for your body, soul and spirit and His design for your life. It's 'going with the flow', His flow, not against it.

'Diving from the bridge' isn't in your best interest. The sign tells you so. God's voice through His word (through the indwelling Holy Spirit to our human spirit) lets us know that that He's looking after our best interests.

Its as though God is saying,

"No bridge jumping. If I needed you to jump off bridges I would have given you wings and an elastic tail. Perhaps you should concentrate your energies in those areas where you are particularly gifted. You get that I made you a certain way for a reason, right?"

"Rigghhht. Thank you."

God's mercies are new every morning. Some blessings shout while others whisper and some make no sound at all. When we see how God has lavished blessings on us and saved us from the consequences of our own foolish moves it becomes easy to live a 'Thank You' life.

"Thank you for the light and the life and rivers of everlasting water and a home in heaven and a hope in God. Thank you Lord!"

That's the way it should be. But who you were (and to a some degree still are) is at war with who you are becoming. Although reckoning the truth does empower obedience in a 'Thank You' life, it does not ensure it. Remember, we are three parts; one spiritual (the human spirit,) and two carnal (the body or flesh and the soul including the mind, emotion and will.) The natural inclination of both body and soul is disobedience, but in order for the Spirit to be physically manifest we have to choose to be obedient. If our soul (will) agrees with God's Spirit though our human spirit, we choose obedience. But we don't always agree.

Have you ever felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and just kept ignoring it hoping it would go away?

The soul is refusing to agree with the spirit/Spirit. We know from experience then that, even when we are Spiritually energized believers, we can still grieve the Spirit and choose to indulge the carnal. We can see Paul dealing with just this issue as he writes to the bretheren in Galatians 5.

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." (Galatians 5:17)

So, though understanding God's grace in our lives is the way He makes doing the right thing easy for us, it isn't yet done. We still have to exercise our will.

Even in the light of a new Spiritual way of thinking, it is still a matter of free choice. Will we respond to God's conviction or will we respond to something else?

"I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." (John 5:30)

The truth is all of us miss this mark. That's not to say we never attain it, but that, like a graph of the stock market, we oscillate up and down. This is one reason why John writes that none of us is (even currently) without sin.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)

Using the literal meaning of sin that sentence would read,

"If we say that we don't 'miss the mark', we deceive ourselves,..."

John repeats the idea again in verse 10 for emphasis.

"If we say that we haven't 'missed the mark', we make Him a liar.." (1 John 1:10a)

Ouch. That's what they mean when they say, "The truth hurts."

To make certain that this fact (that all of us miss the mark) doesn't become a debilitating discouragement, in between verses 8 and 10, God offers encouragement and assurance.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Again, "Thank You God." When we're living in God's light it is easy to see that we have good reason to be living a 'Thank You' life. Let's choose to walk in that light. We pray that we should not only hear Him, but have the desire and will to respond.

 

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