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In my blog, “Trusting
God”, I had tried to link “Trust and Obey” as one item, but I failed. Nevertheless,
in the previous blog, I tried to deal with some aspects of “Trusting God”. In
this current blog, I wanted to continue the theme by looking at the some of the
meanings of Obedience to God (which, by the way, is Key Belief Number 8).
I found describing
this topic more difficult than I had expected. The references to obedience to
God are numerous. Furthermore, they do not all point in a single direction and
many are either difficult to take at face value in terms of our daily lives,
difficult to interpret or difficult to tie up with other references. Whatever
they are, we have to make sense of them in our daily lives, in some way.
Jesus appears to
set the standard very high. I
give three examples.
“Follow me and I will
make you Fishers of Men”, caused his disciples to leave what they were doing and
to follow Jesus. (Matthew 4.19). [Click for link]
In Matthew 8.18 (and
following) Jesus reminds people what is involved in following Him and this does
not seem to be easy either. [Click for link]
A rich young ruler
wanted to obtain eternal life and was told that he needed to give away all he
owned. (Mark 10.17) [Click for link]
These references lay
importance on some form of personal sacrifice and is a theme emphasised by the some
sections of the church.
I will contrast this
to some parts of the Old Testament. The Book of Leviticus (third book of the Bible) lays down detailed
regulations for the People of Israel concerning ceremonial matters, sacrificing,
cleanliness, various rules about food, what can and cannot be eaten and
regulations. While perhaps of interest, these are not regarded by the Christian
Church, as having any practical significance, but were taken seriously by the
people of Israel then, and in the present day in some parts of the Jewish faith.
These are the two ends
of obedience: self-sacrifice in following God / Jesus, or an adherence to a set
of detailed set of regulations.
Bridging the Gap
In the Old Testament,
the prophets make an attempt to bridge this gap or at least give a way of
interpreting these. They stated that these are incomplete and that on their
own, neither is completely correct. They argued that God’s commands are not
difficult to follow and that a correct attitude of the heart towards God is
more important than the act itself. They argued that what God required was our
hearts. The action itself was not as important as the attitude of our heart
towards God.
There are several such
references. I will make reference to just two examples. From Hosea (Chap 6.6) [Click for Link]. Hosea argues that God desires mercy and love; the acknowledgement of God,
rather than a daily ritual of sacrifice (“burnt offerings”).
Micah argues (in Chap 6.6 to 8) in a similar vein. [Click for link]. He asks a question and
gives the answer: “What does the LORD require of you? It is to act justly and
to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
(I have added a short
list of other relevant quotes from the Old Testament at the end of this blog.)
Jesus uses a
combination of both of these quotes in Matthew 9.13 [Click for link], when He addresses the religious leaders of
the day. One of the major themes of the Gospels is Jesus’ dispute with the
religious leaders of the day, and their obsessive adherence to rules and
regulations, while ignoring the important aspects of their faith, such as love
and knowing God.
Jesus has a more
rewarding conversation with another religious teacher in Mark 12.28 [Click for link]. Jesus states that the
most important commandment is “The Lord, your God, is one God, and you shall
love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your
mind and all your strength.” And he adds: “And you shall love your neighbour as
yourself.” The teacher agreed and Jesus said that he was not far from the
Kingdom of God.
In my opening
paragraph, I used the first one of these two commands. God’s first command to his
people was always that we should to acknowledge Him in our hearts, as the one
true God.
Perhaps this is the
heart of Obedience.
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Note: Here are some
other relevant Old Testament References.
