Obedience: What does that look Like?

 I have spoken about obedience often in my posts, so what is that practically. How should we be working that out in our lives?

“If you love me, keep my commands. "Jesus"

John 14:15 NIV

We know from scripture that keeping The Law (of Moses), or any other moral code; does not produce salvation, that; (salvation) is found by Faith and Grace in Jesus alone. Yet we see that Jesus honoured the Law, and when asked which law was the greatest (to test him) his response was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 22:36‭-‬40 NIV

This is where we get the saying Love God, Love people. So we are not saved by law, however Jesus tells us to obey his commands, Why? To prove we love him is one quick answer, another is "Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

1 John 2:6 NIV

So we find that if we claim to be in Christ we are called to live like him, and he walked in total obedience. Reminder at this point he was fully man and fully God, and lived in this fallen world, tempted by Satan himself, and was without sin. He is our example to strive towards. As there are too many specific commands to look at each one I will focus on the ones I have found useful. 

Apart from the two commands that Jesus said were the two most important, To Love God and to Love your neighbour. The next one is to me of paramount importance. 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33 NIV

So what does this mean? Well seeking implies searching, for truth maybe, or the secret of life or satisfaction perhaps? What is doesn't mean; is that you seek and live on your own terms. It means full and complete surrender, to the truth of Gods principles. We got to remember it's His Kingdom and therefore his truth, we are subjects of the King and HIS Kingdom. I find these other scriptures shed light on the matter of seeking. 

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life  will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Matthew 16:24‭-‬26 NIV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.   “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Matthew 13:44‭-‬46 NIV

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 6:24 NIV

Although the scripture above is specifically about money. Money could be be viewed as worldly system's, carears and the like. It cleary warns about divided loyalties and our first love priorities. 

In the Kingdom it's all or nothing, total surrender and obedience to the King and HIS Kingdom.  There is no luxury choice of doing it "My Way" as the Frank Sinatra song goes. There is a persuasive train of  ideology today that encourages you and I to do things on our own terms.  It sounds good, but it excludes the fact that God is the supreme authority in the world, not ourselves. 

His word contains many instructions on how we are to conduct our lives in respect to presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, on how to behave in church, towards our brother's, unbelievers among other important things. How to treat our spouses and children, loving our enemies, forgiveness, walking humbly before God. 

As Jesus reveals these things to us, and calls us to obey, it becomes a personal revelation and if we refuse to follow, our conscious will be pricked and we find ourselves in a place of sin. 

Fortunately we are not left alone to do this, we have the assistance of The Holy Spirit, the Grace of God and other diciples, who are witnesses to encourage and exhort us. I recommend reading the rest of my posts in this blog, sure some of them may prove useful in gaining a better understanding of Gods purposes for each of us. 

The danger of us getting to pick and choose, what we obey or not, raises a question of, are we serving the true biblical God, or a false idol or image that suits our convenience and comforts? We are either for Christ or against him, the choice is yours, but God may then say "Alright have it your way then" as per C.S Lewis.




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