I came face to face this week with this whole obedience issue.  After thinking through it, I decided to see what the bible specifically says about it.  After digging in, it’s safe to say that disobedience damages relationships and reflects an inflated sense of self, and obedience shows love and humility.  Here’s what I found-

Obedience.  It’s  strange word with lots of negative connotations attached.  Most people don’t list obedience as one of their strong points.  No, we are much more likely to be “leaders, innovators, trailblazers, and out of the box thinkers”.  We are not an obedient people.  To our detriment.
Why should we be obedient?  In a simple worldly view, being obedient to laws, rules, and regulations will keep you safe (in the majority of cases, I’m not here to debate the exception), keep you out of jail, keep your driving record clean, and keep you off of the IRS’s list.  All good things.

Infinitely more important is the scriptural view of obedience.   Plain and simple, God honors obedience.  He gave the Israelite’s the Ten Commandments to obey.  When they didn’t, there were dramatic and occasionally deadly repercussions.  God even went to the trouble to specifically call out obedience to your parents as making the top 10 all time important laws for His people.  More on parents and children later.  Move to the New Testament, and see that Christ on multiple occasions tells his disciples and his followers (and those who want to be his followers) that if they love Him, obey Him.  John 14:15 – “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”  Look at that again.  If you love Christ, obey Him.  Straightforward.  Direct.  Clear.  Need more?  John 14:23.  John 15:10.  Luke 11:28.  Luke 8:21.  Jump to the Old Testament and read 1 Sam 15:22.

Our human sin nature is at war with us daily.  The world has joined forces to tell us that life is about being happy.  If you don’t like your marriage, get a divorce and start over.  If you have too much debt, just declare bankruptcy and walk away.  Unhappy with your body?  Plastic surgery is the answer.  Feeling down?  Hit the mall and buy something.  Insecure?  New clothes will fix that.  And so on and so on.  The reoccurring message is do what you want, be happy, self is all that matters.  You deserve it.  You.  Self.  Me.  Mine.

Christ came to turn the world upside down.  He says the last shall be first, the least is the greatest, and He says that self should be crucified.  We are to be new creations.  We are to love him and demonstrate that love with obedience.  All that the world places such high value on is deemed worthless.  Self first will never understand, self first will never be able to truly follow Christ.  Which is why Christ says no man can follow both God and money.  I believe that money is used here literally as well as to symbolize the “world” and all that money represents.

So then, if obedience is love, then disobedience is rebellion.  An ugly word.  In this case, an accurate word.  When we disobey God, parents, or society, we are in rebellion.  Self in charge is pure rebellion against what God has commanded us.

If you’re not convinced by now that obedience is core to being a Christ follower, just stop reading now and move on, I’m not going to spend any more time trying to change your mind on this one.  On the other hand, if you are still reading, let’s take a deeper dive into the “why” around obedience.

Obedience is setting aside self.  It is following a command, an order, or directions, even when it would be easier not to.  Even when you would rather do something else.  Even when it costs you something.  Especially when it costs you something.  That cost could be monetary, it could be opportunity cost (you miss something you really want to do), or it could be more.  Christ calls us to sacrifice self for His glory and His plan.  Obedience is not optional, it is mandatory.  Mandatory.  Every act of disobedience is a visible demonstration of self over Christ.  So it’s no leap at all to call out disobedience as sin.  Putting self over Christ is sin.  Which is why Christ was so clear and emphatic on obedience and love being inseparably intertwined.  If you follow that logic, then disobedience in any form is rebellion to the authority who made the rule, request, or order.

Obedience is setting aside self in order to demonstrate love.  What if every Christ follower read the great commission and said, “I’m not really into going to the ends of the earth and proclaiming Christ.  Instead, I’ll just sit at home and occasionally read my bible”.  You would have to ask if that person truly loved Christ.  When small children deliberately disobey their parents as children, you understand that they are simply following their core human nature – selfishness, the will that says I will do what I want to do.  You could even add – no matter what.  I will do what I want to do no matter what.  The process of disciple as a parent is simply designed to help your child understand that obedience is critical to their safety (personal safety – not crossing the street during rush hour, and social safety – think choosing to run a red light and the potential consequences).  When older children disobey, it becomes much clearer expression of an internal imbalance.  Notice that God’s command to obey your parents has no limits.  No time limits.  I am still commanded to obey my father, to honor him, to love him.  Now, it has been a long time since my father gave me specific directions, but even at this stage in my life, I realize he has wisdom I don’t, and that I disregard his words at my peril.  More than that, I love that he takes great pleasure in who I am, and who I am striving to be, and I know as well that he was deeply ashamed and embarrassed of me at previous points in my life.  I believe that God sees us much the same.  When we are obedient to him, and to all he calls us to be obedient to (Him first, parents, government), we are centered in His will, we are properly submitted to His will.  In short, we are obedient (selfless).

In closing, one of our biggest failures is our inability to see ourselves accurately.  We have an innate ability to rationalize our behaviors to a point that is inexcusable to anyone except ourselves.  I can justify why I did not tithe this month, I can mentally defend why I am not giving more, going more, why I am not kinder, more loving, I can explain every one of my behaviors in some way that allows me to keep my mental picture of myself whole.  I can defend why I did not obey this law or this command, but at the end of the day, I am forced to admit that my rebellion is self centered, and in fact, my rebellion is against God himself.  No amount of reason can excuse me.  Self is triumphant over God.  So my challenge, and probably yours as well, is to stop excusing ourselves from obedience.  Where there is love, there is obedience.