What is the meaning of obedience to a Christian?
"What does OBEDIENCE mean? In simple terms it means hearing the word of God and acting on it. It implies aligning our will to God's will; doing what God has asked us to do. It is when we completely surrender to His authority and base our decisions and our actions on His Word
That paragraph comes from the Lingadzi CCAP website, a Bible Centred Congregation, and the definition of both the dictionary and the Lingadzi congregation matches how I look at obedience - specifically Christian obedience.
Our obedience is based on our faith, and our faith is explained in a couple of verses:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1 KJV)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8 KJV)
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:26 KJV)
So often non-Christians think of all the Jewish rules, beginning with the Ten Commandments given at Mt. Sinai and continuing into our age when Rabbi's determine which material is correct for false teeth or that elevators cannot be used on the Sabbath because it causes a spark.
For Christians, this has been fulfilled, to the point that Jesus defined two commandments on which to base our lives:
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:35-40 KJV)
Jesus spoke of other laws, and I've mentioned a good many in other blogs, but today I want to stick with obedience and faith. You'll learn much about them, but God's laws are meaningul and are not onerous, though somewhat limiting. They range from not killing to staying married, and bring great peace and comfort. Micah describes this very well:
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV)
It is easy to see ourselves walking humbly with a deity who simply wants our love and to be merciful to others - until we met that person. The one who not only doesn't believe in God, but laughs and mocks at our desire to do so. Sorry, we are supposed to love them, too, and pray they will come to understand. Sometimes it gets to the point that we pray clearly that God send someone else to deal with that person, but often our prayer list still contains that name and knowledge this may be difficult, but obedience tells us the job is ours.
The Bible lays out what we are supposed to do, and what we are specifically told not to do. Most of both are easily understoon to be against the two (love God, love people) written above.
I've been seriously remiss in this area - sharing God's word with others through this blog on the internet. Oh, there have been struggles with daily living, health problems, holidays, visits - and one huge issue where a fellow Christian was spiritually hurt. The answer was to pay close attention, love them, and pray. That will help with my own obedience, and sustain my faith.
How is your obedience toward what God has set out for you to do? How's your prayer time? How's your faith? Mine? Growing. It's a blessed walk with my God.
