TO LOVE AND TO OBEY
Growing up in the church can sometimes desensitize you to certain phrases and expressions. The familiar colloquialisms—"Praise the Lord, saints!" "God is good!" "His mercy endures forever!"—can become so routine that they lose their impact. But there was a song my pastor would randomly break into during service: "O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E is the very best way to show that you believe." Eventually, the entire congregation would join in, but at the time, I cared very little about obedience, so singing it felt like casting words to the wind.
As I grew older and my understanding of what it means to be a child of God deepened, the message of that song began to resonate. Obedience transformed from a mere word to a reflection of my commitment and devotion to what I professed to believe.
obedience reflects the degree to which WE know, love, and revere god.
Scripture is clear about how God expects to be loved by us: with our entire heart, mind, and soul (Matthew 22:37). But why is it so important for us to be fully surrendered and present in our relationship with God?
Our hearts are deceitful and impossible to understand (Jeremiah 17:9); any part of us that isn’t submitted to God can easily lead us away from Him. In Philippians, God instructs us to think on good things—whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable (Philippians 4:8)—because He knows our minds can be a playground for intrusive thoughts that lead to sin. Our souls—where our desires, will, and affections are housed—without the purification of Jesus, will inevitably drag us back into the very things He freed us from through His death.
Very plainly in John, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." There is no caveat, loophole, or middle ground. Our love for God—our appreciation and adoration for what Jesus sacrificed for us—is evident in our obedience or lack thereof.
OBEDIENCE IS an ACT OF WORSHIP
I hated when my mom would link my disobedience to idol worship. Trying to reason with her about how I don’t love anything or anybody more than God, her eyes would peel over her reading glasses, “Anything you put before God is idol worship. And, worship is what we were created for.” Still convinced that if I didn’t have a golden calf or altar erected somewhere in my room it was impossible to participate in idol worship.
Witnessing the battle in my mind, she replied with Romans 6:12-14 [AMP], “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you should obey it in it’s lusts and passions. Do not go on offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer yourselves to God [in a decisive act] as those alive [raised] from the dead [to a new life], and your members [all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart] as instruments of righteousness [yielded] to God.”
Words alone can’t constitute obedience; action must be attached to it. Just as words alone can’t be worship, action must accompany them. In our obedience, we present our bodies as an offering to God. In our disobedience, we present our bodies as an offering to sin. Further proving that wherever we lay our offerings—time, heart, devotion, behavior, abilities, desire, obedience— illustrates who we belong to and who we worship.
obedience and surrender is a non-negotiable in the christian faith.
Let’s consider the following verses as we try to understand our positions as a member in the body of Christ and how our obedience ties into that.
Romans 12:1 [AMP] “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.
Because of our free-will God does not force us to do anything. It is our job to willfullly choose to present our bodies continuously to God.
Present means: to place a person or thing at one’s disposal. If you are choosing to be a follower of Christ everything you possess is at His disposal.
How are our bodies made holy and well-pleasing to God? Through our submission and obedience to His will.
1 Corinthians 6:15 [NKJV] “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!
When I am willfully and consistently disobedient and proclaim Christ I am misrepresenting Him and causing confusion for those who don’t know Him. Who also causes confusion for those who don’t know Him? Satan.
After choosing to walk with Christ our entire body is no longer ours.
Romans 12: 17,19 [NKJV] “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him… Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
If we are one with Christ, we will also begin to look Christ. If we do not look like Him, evaluate who we are actually joined with.
The Holy Spirit literally lives in us. The more sin reigns in our body, the less space and more defiled His temple is.
Again, if we are following Christ, we don’t get to call the shots.
Romans 12:20 [NKJV] “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
What was used as payment for our lives? Jesus.
Who is our example in the Christian faith? Jesus.
Who glorified God in their body and spirit? Jesus.
How can we learn to glorify God in our bodies and spirit? Jesus.
“SINCE YOU HAVE PURIFIED YOUR SOULS IN OBEYING THE TRUTH THROUGH THE SPIRIT IN A SINCERE LOVE OF THE BRETHREN, LOVE ONE ANOTHER FERVENTLY WITH A PURE HEART.” 1 PETER 1:22 [nkjv]
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus and the apostles vividly describe what it takes to follow Him. They speak of dying to our flesh, losing our life to gain it, bearing our cross, and suffering with Him so that we may also reign with Him. In Romans, we are called to be a living sacrifice, but what does that truly mean? Do we fully grasp what it takes to be a follower of Christ?
When Paul described himself as being poured out like a drink offering in his letter to Timothy, he was imprisoned, abandoned by friends, and suffering for the sake of the Gospel—yet he didn’t care. In the next verse, he marveled at the fact that he had finished his race, fought the good fight, and firmly guarded the Gospel with his own life.
Paul allowed himself to be poured out and emptied, discarded and considered disposable, for the sake of the Gospel. He regarded his life, his own body, his desires, and his plans as nothing in comparison to the Gospel. How was he able to do that? Through his knowledge and revelation of who Jesus was. How was he able to choose obedience over his own flesh? By yielding to the Holy Spirit. His life was a response to what Jesus did for him on the cross, and our lives will be as well. Whether our response is obedience or disobedience, reverence or dishonor, pride or humility, diligent service or abandonment, we will all have to give an account of how we spent our time here.
As we all reflect throughout the week consider how we are spending our time on earth and who truly has our obedience and surrender.
