Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Can You Obey God?

Can you obey God?

It sounds like an easy question. Can you obey God? Our first response should be, “Yes!” It is a question that deserves an honest inquiry. Given the ability of our human mind to rationalize our own point of view, it should come as no surprise that to some degree we are all evading the truth.

In 1 John 4:20, it says, ‘If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.’ (KJV)

I propose that the same principle applies to obedience. Let me rephrase 1John 4:20 to illustrate. ‘If anyone says, I obey God,” yet disobeys his father, he is a liar. For anyone who does not obey his father, whom he has seen, cannot obey God, whom he has not seen.’ (JPW)

I say that because of Romans 13:1,2,”Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (KJV) Parents, husbands, love, and governments are examples of those authorities.

When children rebel against their parent’s rules, they are also fighting against God’s plan. We have heard that instruction and it is true, whether the rule has merit the child understands or not. So long as the child is in opposition to the parent, he is also in opposition to God, therefore not able to obey God. Psalm 66:18,“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”

Now how about the wife who does not obey the husband? But what if she truly loves God and just wants to serve HIM? Can’t she just leave the disreputable husband out of the formula? The problem is, God does not. Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,”(KJV) including the husband that you have. Obedience to God requires obedience to His authorities.

All men have to serve authorities. Scripture never gives an age of release to no longer honor parents, but he does have a time for a man to make his own household. A man in his own house still must also honor governments, Again Romans 13:1, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”(KJV) If the Trilateral Commission, Rockefellers, Bilderbergs, and other secret groups are actually running America instead of our constitution, then they are a power ordained of God. The Bible does not give a caveat for “legal or illegal”. If a power rises by means of the gun, money, or by the pen, it is still power. Our response to it is still a matter of obeying God because no power can rise without His permission. If you can’t live under its rule, then move! or go to war to remove it from power. Civil disobedience is still disobedience, and 1 Samuel 15:23, “…rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” (KJV)

If we cannot obey those who God puts in our path, how can we in any honesty believe we can submit to the one who put them there? Was He a fool to make the arrangements? Did He blindly put people in random places, and order events to occur without reason?

Dare I suggest our wisdom is greater than God’s, so we then are able to find a better way of dealing with the order of life? We think the chain of command/hierarchy is an outdated concept and our modern thought has exceeded God’s ability and vision. Be sure to tell Him that when you stand before the Throne.

Obedience is not a selective discipline. We are not offered which portions of Scripture we want to follow. The commandments are not “best 8 out of 10”. Walking with God is a package deal. He is well aware that we are unable to keep up. Our weakness says that we cannot keep the whole Law. TRUE. But that is not justification to dismiss any aspect of obedience.

Philippians 3:13-15, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” (KJV)

If I claim to obey God, then I must show it by my deliberate ACTION toward other people, in view of people. Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Even as Jesus said, “Not my will but thine be done”, can you say that to someone here on earth whom God has placed in authority over you? If not, then don’t try to fake it before Jesus.

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