Obedient Faith
Obeying God is commanded:
Obeying God is commanded in passages like 1 Sam 15:22 and 1 Pet 1:14-16. Obedience shows we love God (Jn 14:15; 1Jn 3:10). It also demonstrates that we have faith in Him (NIDNTT, v 2, p 177; Rom 1:5). As Bonhoeffer said, “Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe.” Obedience is necessary for those in God’s family (Mt 12:50). Furthermore, it is the key to gaining spiritual knowledge (Jn 7:17). “The golden rule for understanding in spiritual matters is not intellect, but obedience” (Oswald Chambers) because “I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey” (C. S. Lewis). Hence, obedience is the required response to a relationship with God (BSB note on Ex 20:2) and only a godless person would say that the Lord does not need to be obeyed (Jude 4, CEV).
The nature of our obeying God:
God’s redemptive work through Christ gives the foundation for our ability to obey the Lord (1 Cor 6:20). With this foundation in place, the Holy Spirit can enable us to repent of our sins and believe the gospel, give us a new nature that is capable of obeying the Lord, and then further empower us to do so. Responding to God’s will, as He wants, is the most obvious aspect of obedience and can be described as hearing, trusting, or obeying (ZPEB, v 4, p 482-483). Our obedience to God must pertain to every area of our life. That is why believers are called ‘children of obedience’ in 1 Pet 1:14 (NIDNTT, v 2, p 179). As Phil 2:12-13 indicates, growth in being like Christ is a result of our trusting the Lord to transform us as we actively seek to obey Him (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1st ed, p 755). We obey God because He is trustworthy (NIV Thematic Bible, #8453). Obedience is the result of our committed faith that leads to us being faithful to Him (ZPEB, v 4, p 483). Obeying the Lord provides evidence that we have a close relationship with God (1 Jn 5:3; EDBW, p 463). According to 1 Sam 15:22, true obedience means that our inward desire to please God is more important than mere outward conformity to His wishes (ISBE, v 2, p 649). Our actions express our inner agreement with God in doing what He asks.
What, then, are our motivations to obey God? Being in a loving relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we realize that His command is a loving desire for us to experience what He knows to be best (EDBW, p 462, 464). Grudem (Systematic Theology, 1st ed, p 757-758) lists a number of other motives for being obedient to the Lord: our love for Him (Jn 14:15), wanting to not be punished (Heb 12:3-11), a desire to be rewarded in this life and the next (1 Pet 3:9-12; 1 Cor 3:12-15), a desire to have a clear conscience (1 Tim 1:5), and a yearning to be closer to Him (Jn 14:21).
Other characteristics of being obedient to God include fully obeying Him (Ps 119:4, NIV), obeying Him simply because He is God our Creator and Sustainer (Gen 17:1), and eagerly obeying Him (Ps 119:32, Moffatt). We should want to obey the Lord more than we want pleasure (Mt 5:6, CEV). In addition, we desire to obey Him in tiny details (1 Chron 29:19, LB) even if the command seems pointless to us (BSB note on Jn 9:6). Finally, we are to love obeying Him (Ps 103:18, CW). Our obedience is to involve total submission to the Father as it did for Jesus (Sheldrake, Christian Spirituality, p 470).
The nature of our disobeying God:
To be disobedient to God is to refuse to listen to Him because we will not allow ourselves to be persuaded to His point of view (ISBE, v 1, p 961). Hence, disobedience can be understood as rebellion, disregarding God’s will, or unbelief (ZPEB, v 4, p 482). Disobedience is faithlessness which leads to acts God considers to be immoral (Tit 1:16; 3:3; IDB, v 3, p 581). It is not paying attention to what He says (Isa 48:18, NIV), bad hearing (ISBE, v 1, p 961), and ignoring Him (2 Thess 1:8, AB-1st ed). Believers disobey because our heart is hardened toward the Lord (Heb 3:7-11; EDBW, p 463). When this happens, God must set us straight and discipline us so we are able to avoid the judgment that would occur were we to continue in that state (Rom 2:8; ISBE, v 2, p 649).
Disobedience can be either active and/or passive. In active disobedience, we do that which is wrong in God’s sight. Examples would be committing adultery, lying, or stealing. In passive disobedience, we are unwilling to do the known will of God (what is right) or to even try to determine what His best is. Examples would include failure to consult God about what His will is in a certain situation (Isa 30:1, NASB), a habit of not going to church (Heb 10:24-25), seldom praying (1 Thess 5:17), and failure to diligently study the Bible (Heb 5:11-6:3). King Saul is given as an example of both passive and active disobedience in 1 Chron 10:13.
Results of our obeying God:
We believers who are habitually obedient will be happy (Ps 85:8, Beck; Ps 97:11, CEV) because the Lord will walk with us throughout our lives (Hos 14:9, CEV). He will be pleased with us and let us enter His rest (Isa 66:2, NCV; Heb 4:3, CW). We will have joy: “The joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God’s will” (John Newton). In addition, we will know God better: “God will never reveal more truth about himself till you obey what you already know” (Oswald Chambers). Obedience makes us stronger: “The strength and happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going that way too” (Henry Ward Beecher). When we gladly obey Him, we receive His blessing (Ps 112:1, CEV), He is better able to protect us (Prov 10:24-25, CEV), and it makes us less prone to follow self-will the next time (Sheldrake, Christian Spirituality, p 470). He will also reward us with good counsel (Prov 2:7, CEV), help us positively impact others, and will give us peace (ZPEB, v 4, p 483). Furthermore, since obedience leads to fellowship with God (Jn 14:23) and improves our character (Gal 5:7), we can say with C. S. Lewis: “Obedience is the key to all doors.”
Some results when the believer refuses to obey God:
Naturally, the disobedient believer forfeits all the positive results that could have been theirs had they obeyed the Lord. Hence, some results of disobedience would include missed opportunities, diminished closeness with God, a worsening character, reduced peace, having a more negative impact on others, less ability to hear God’s good counsel, greater self-will in decision making, diminished protection from evil, fewer blessings from the Lord, reduced happiness, becoming spiritually weaker, being more easily deceived, and eroding joy. We would also experience an increase in sinful behavior since our choices always come down to following God or following sin (Rom 6:16, NCV). Understandably, this leads to our greater ruin because we are ruined when we are unwilling to obey God (Hos 4:6, CEV). A further consequence is that we will stop making spiritual progress (Gal 5:7, AAT). If this pattern continues, we will drift from the truth toward an apostasy of indifference (Heb 2:1).
Obedient faith:
Only those who habitually obey God with a faith-inspired obedience will be saved (Heb 5:9; 1 Jn 2:17; 2 Thess 1:8 – where the verb tenses in all 3 passages indicate habitual obedience). In addition, Jesus commanded everyone to keep repenting and to keep believing the gospel in Mark 1:15 (the verb tense is a present imperative that indicates ongoing action). Repentance involves actions of obedience (Acts 26:20). Furthermore, true faith is faithful as shown in Habak 2:4 where the word for 'faith' also means 'faithful.' Similarly, the key New Testament word for faith, pistis, is normally translated as 'faithful' in Gal 5:22 but also means 'faith'. The implication is that the truly faithful person must have faith to be faithful (cf. Heb 11:6) and that the person who has genuine faith will be habitually faithful. That is why Paul can talk about the 'obedience of faith' in Rom 1:5 and 16:26. Faith without faithfulness is not saving faith (Jas 2:14). Finally, those who don't love the Lord will be accursed (1 Cor 16:22). However, genuine love WILL ongoingly keep God's commandments (Jn 14:15 and 23 - the future tense in these indicates action that absolutely will take place).
How to improve our obedient responses:
We can become more obedient by cultivating humility as the humble person is less self-willed. To further diminish our self-will, we can try to discern God’s specific will through prayer and the counsel of godly individuals (Sheldrake, Christian Spirituality, p 470). It helps to quit insisting on knowing why God asks us to do things. We should simply trust that He is good and seeks what is best. This trust would involve surrendering to Him (Rom 12:1), following Christ’s example (1 Pet 2:21), relying on the work of the Holy Spirit in our life (Gal 5:22-23), and being willing to pay the price to obey. The cost of obedience includes such things as the self-denial that obeys God’s word even when we disagree with it, accepting problems like persecution that may come our way, and the discipline that makes sure every one of our thoughts reflects God’s way of thinking (2 Cor 10:5). We must pursue obedience by finding out what obeying Him means in each situation (Hos 6:3, Tanakh) then actively choosing to do His will instead of arguing with Him about His plan. Obedience can also be enriched by realizing that if Jesus isn’t Lord of our life, then we are guilty of idolatry. Avoiding even small movements toward disobedience and building habits that contribute to obedience are helpful. For example, we can cultivate the habit of asking, “Lord, what would you have me do now?” (Fenelon). Finally, we can make sure we make choices to obey God knowing that our emotions and attitudes will follow instead of letting our emotions or attitudes determine if we will obey.
Unending pleasure in the next life; training for godly pleasure in this one.