Las Vegas, Nevada Church
Affiliated with the Intercontinental Church of God and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Obedience...an additional perspective   MP3

What I am about to scribe here is nothing new.  It is just that we [myself included] tend to sometimes drift into single perspective thinking on various spiritual subjects.  This notebook piece is about obedience.  Generally when this subject is discussed, we ministers make reference to the Law or to the authority and position of God, as in "being in obedience to the Law" or "being in obedience and submission to God and His authority."  Is there something more?  Does obedience involve more than the Law?  What other important spiritual concept is directly linked to obedience?

First, let us look at a couple of definitions for "obedience":

1] Obedience is the willingness to follow the will of others.

2] The quality or state of willingly carrying out the wishes of others: acquiescence, amenability, amenableness, compliance, compliancy, deference, submission, submissiveness, tractability, tractableness [willingness to carry out the wishes of others].

Immediately we see that spiritual obedience is much more than submission to the Law and the authority/position of God.  It is a totality of turning over our very being to the mind, will and plan of God.  This is a willingness to turn over 100% of our will for 100% of His.

The other day I was typing out the Bible Study for the Your Daily Start, a feature we offer at the Church web site.  See if it grabs you the way it did me.

"Humility clarifies our dependence on God. Obedience to God begins with humility. We must believe that His way is better than our own. We may not always understand His ways of working, but by humbly obeying, we will receive His blessings. We must remember that [1] God's ways are best; [2] God wants our obedience more than anything else; and [3] God can use anything to accomplish His purposes."

Notice two definitions for the word, "humility":

1] yielding ones rights and possessions to God,

2] humility is the state of being humble. A humble person is generally thought to be unpretentious and modest: someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others.

We can now conclude two things:

1] Obedience to God involves submitting to every action of God in our life and our environment.

2] Obedience begins with the attitude-adjusting element of humility.  Our submission to the Law, to God's authority and to the will of God depends on our being humble.  It depends on our recognizing and acknowledging that His ways are far above ours and that all His ways are perfect.

Christ is our perfect example of this truth.  More than keeping the Law and never subjecting Himself to the sin process, He yielded perfectly to the will and plan of God.  Notice Philippians 2:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross [stake]. --Philippians 2:8  Christ was holy and this perfect obedience was a part of that holiness.  We are to conform to His example.

As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [conduct and thinking]; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. --1 Peter 1:14-16

Paul learned this lesson well and taught it to both the church and the ministry:

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. –Philippians 4:11

And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. –1 Timothy 6:8

In that Bible study [above], we read, "but by humbly obeying, we will receive His blessings."  Paul confirms this in the book of Hebrews:

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. –Hebrews 13:5

These scriptures came to dwell on my doorstep when I recently had to bid farewell to my 24-year-old daughter and her husband as they moved no less than 2,727 miles away.  Clearly I was not initially happy with this development.  Except for a brief stretch of days, she had never been but a few moments away her entire life.  Her moving this great distance to take a new job was something I had never contemplated.  Unquestionably, it is not my will nor desire that she be so far away.  In my moments of shedding tears and being in wonderment as to what God was doing, I recalled verses from the book of James...

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. –James 4:13-15

God brought my daughter to her mother and myself, with her birth and later, by His will, He brought both her and my son-in-law to repentance, baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.  Now according to that same will, He has taken them across the nation.  Now I could be angry and experience pain and even fight this, but I must submit to the will of God.  I must accept this fully and in a right attitude, remembering always that God is perfect in all His ways.  If I act in humble obedience, I will reap the blessings of God.  Part of that blessing will be an understanding of why He moved them there.  We must all submit ourselves to God and accept the circumstances He brings our way.  We must follow the example of our elder brother, Jesus Christ.

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. –Hebrews 5:9

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Las Vegas, Nevada Church of God - part of The Intercontinental Church of God and The Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association - Tyler, Texas