Obedience Matters

I went to my second Sunday school class at my new church in Longs SC and I have found some brothers that I might have some common ground so I am trying to get excited about that. I say trying because admittedly things have been rough the last few years. I guess I just need to choose to be excited. The second blessing was that I found some insight from the conversations of that Sunday as well as a couple of blog entries from someone else’s blog that I read earlier. I am excited to steal some of their ideas! I’m kidding but I do get excited when I find that biblical common ground with believers even if it is some that I have never met!

Anyway, we were discussing a variety of issues starting with the story of the Good Samaritan and dovetailing into a lot of different issues. Frankly I think we got off track a little bit, but I think that’s ok sometimes. During that discussion we got into how Jesus interacts with us and most notably how He teaches us. One of the guys in the class brought up that Jesus in this instance didn’t teach from the premise of ‘do as I say because I said so.’ Or more succinctly put simple obedience to simple instructions. In terms of the passage in Luke this was true that the Lord used a now popular story, but it was not so encouraging to the audience that He was teaching to. This made me think about how the Lord teaches His disciples and whether we are sometimes seeing things that are not there when we evaluate scripture. In regards to the whole Bible we can see evidence of God giving instructions based upon who He is and nothing else. There is not a lot of flowery speeches or feel good motivational ploys. I brought up Job 38 to illustrate my point which I would recommend reading all of it but I will just right down verses 1-4;

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’ Now prepare yourself like a man I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Now we should all know the story. Job had been singled out and volunteered by God for this trial. He had lost 10 children, all that he owned, his status in the country, and to top it all off his friends were blaming him for all this and his wife was telling him to curse God and die. After all of that this is how a Holy God teaches Job! This does not make sense to us at first. Now you probably are not concerned with that old outdated Old Testament stuff. After all Jesus doesn’t work that way in the New Testament right?! Here is where I stole some inspiration from another blog but I’m sure they won’t mind! Mathew 11:2-6 says:

And when John heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Hi, “Are You the Coming One or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear’ the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.

After these verses the Lord told everyone He was preaching to about John’s faith but He chose not to deliver that message back to John in prison. As a side note this question from John was not rooted in unbelief, but rather depression from circumstances. John was facing death and tired at that point. So this was a cry for emotional help from the Lord and instead of responding to John in that manner the Lord just stuck to the pertinent facts.

Again, this was not exactly the motivational speech we would expect, but when I study the scripture I have found that this is the blunt answer that God usually uses. I can attest that the message to read His Word seven years ago without any reason why and any idea of where to go was His message to me. Therefore sometimes I wonder how we can place these expectations of style and motivational speeches on Jesus when frankly there isn’t a whole lot of evidence that this occurred as much as we would like in the scripture.

My point is that when Jesus was teaching and witnessing to the men especially He was not coddling them at all. The core of the instructions of Jesus was simply “Do what I say.” Essentially if they could not obey the simple instructions there was no need to go any further. (Ex, “Let the dead bury their dead you follow Me” or to Mathew it was simply “Follow Me”) There is a mountain of evidence that Jesus gave simple instructions to the unsaved world and to the courageous men that He would use.

The more the Lord illuminates truth in His Word the more I find that what I previously believed about the character of the Lord is not so. Moreover, I learn more and more about His way of teaching and doing things and find that His ways seem to be in opposition to my natural inclinations in thought and action.

In the end obedience is the true barometer of faith, not the only one, but I think it’s the only one that you cannot fake.