Everyday obedience is the acid test of our faith, for Jesus told us ‘If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.’ (John 15:10, see also Lev 18:4) Edwin Louis Cole says ‘obedience is an act of faith; disobedience is the result of unbelief’; we need to be aware that ‘obedience to God is the pathway to the life you really want to live’ (Joyce Meyer) and that ‘the bottom line in the Christian life is obedience and most people don’t even like the word’! (Charles Stanley)
We can, however, respond to God’s commands in different ways: either by disobeying them (as Jonah did), by partially obeying (as Saul did) or with whole-hearted obedience (as Jesus did).
Disobedience
Since Adam and Eve’s first rebellion against God, the pull of our own hearts to do our own thing rather than to obey God has been insistent and powerful. Jonah is an example of outright disobedience. God called him to preach in Ninevah (Jonah 1:2), but instead he headed in the opposite direction to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3) Obedience is easy when God is telling us to do things we want to do, but we only have to see how we react when God tells us to do something we don’t want to do to gauge our true levels of obedience! Jonah failed this test miserably.His disobedience could be regarded as directly doing something other than what God had called him to do. For many of us, disobedience can be through sins of commission (doing something God has forbidden), but it can also be through sins of omission (not doing something God has told us to do.) Disobedience is insidious: we can try to do God’s will our own way or use our own reasoning, but all disobedience leads us away from fellowship with God. Disobedience even in little things can easily trip us up. Song of Songs says ‘Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.’ (Song of Songs 2:15) Sin doesn’t have to be huge to be a problem; disobedience doesn’t have to be in something big to trip us up.
Partial Obedience
1 Samuel 15 is the chapter where God rejects Saul as king. The chapter starts with Samuel, the prophet, bringing a direct word from God to Saul: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ (1 Sam 15:2-3) Saul goes off obediently, gathering 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men from Judah, and attacks the Amalekites.However, 1 Sam 15:8-9 show us that he does not fully obey this word, sparing Agag, the king, and the best animals. Saul does not initially see that he has not fulfilled all of God’s commands (see 1 Sam 15:13,20). It takes the incisive, prophetic word Samuel brings to sweep away Saul’s rationalisations and excuses, to uncover the fear of people at the heart of the problem and to reveal that this partial obedience is actually as bad as divination and idolatry. (1 Sam 15:21-24) It’s always dangerous if we care more about being people-pleasers than God-fearers. We need the courage to stand up for what is right (see Heb 11:25-26), remembering that not all who say ‘Lord, Lord‘ will be received by Christ, but only those who do the will of the Father (see Matt 7:21).
Whole-hearted obedience
Jesus models whole-hearted obedience for us, delighting to do His Father’s will (see John 6:38, John 5:19,30, Ps 40:8, Heb 10:9). Just like the psalmist (Ps 119:8, 10, 34, 44, 56, 73, 129, 159, 163-164), he shows us a new and better way through obedience which looks beyond the present agony (eg in the Garden of Gethsemane) to the rewards (see Heb 12:2, Is 53:11).
For us, we know that whole-hearted obedience will bring us ‘treasure in heaven’: ‘your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you’ (Matt 6:4). God is no man’s debtor; He doesn’t owe us anything but freely and generously gives us everything we need. (Phil 4:19) Hebrews 6:10 reminds us that ‘God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them’ and Paul reminds the Romans that ‘we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.’ (Rom 8:17) No matter what sacrifices we make, no matter how much we feel we may have to give up for God’s sake, we will not suffer long-term loss. Jesus said ‘if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.’ (Matt 10:42) and reminded His disciples ‘everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.’ (Matt 19:29) The rewards of whole-hearted obedience will always outweigh the sacrifices, for God’s generosity always overflows: ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Luke 6:38)
We gain freedom, fellowship and a faith that flourishes from everyday obedience, for as we obey God in one thing, He opens the door to something else and so the journey continues. Everyday obedience means counting the cost daily: taking up the cross, denying ourselves and choosing to follow Jesus in simple acts of obedience on a day-by-day basis. As Mary said to the servants before Jesus’s first miracle at the wedding of Cana, ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (John 2:5) is the best advice we can ever follow.