Obedience
Obedience is carrying out the word and will of another person, especially the will of
God. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word “obey” is related to the idea of
hearing and doing. Obedience is an act of submitting to an authority. It is
compliance with the demands or requests of someone over us. The general words
for obedience in both Hebrew and Greek refer to hearing a superior authority. One
Greek word that is translated “obedience” includes the idea of submission to
authority in the sense of arranging or ordering oneself under someone in a place of
command. Obedience to God and human authorities is an obligation stressed in
both the Old Testament and New Testament. Abraham obeyed God in offering Isaac
on the altar (Genesis 22:18). God’s continued blessing upon Israel by virtue of their
covenant was contingent upon their obeying his voice and keeping His covenant
(Exodus 19:5). On the verge of entering Canaan, Moses placed before Israel a
blessing and a curse, the former if they listened to and obeyed the commandments
of the Lord Yahweh, and the latter if they did not (Deuteronomy 28). emphasized to
King Saul that God’s pleasure was not in sacrifice but in obedience
(I Samuel 15:22) said, has the Lord Yahweh as great delight in burned offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord Yahweh? Behold to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams”.
Your obedience should be fueled by your love and not by legalism. When you
consider that your heavenly Father knows all things, and that He wants what’s best
for you; we should honor Him with respect. You know when you were young, you
didn’t want your parents to see you do certain things, sometimes because of the
consequences. Well God is our Father and He is a holy God, not able to be where
sin is. Even the promise of a new covenant emphasized obedience as God’s gift
(Jeremiah 31:33) “but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel, after those days, says the Lord Yahweh, I will put My law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be My people”. When
we came to Jesus the Holy Spirit moved in on the inside of our heart, and if we will
listen, He will direct us.
People us grace as a license to live like the world, but Paul said “what then? Shall
we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you
not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?”
(Romans 6:15-16).
People talk about how even Paul struggled with sin in Romans 7:15-25. Paul is
showing that in the flesh (without Christ) we are subject to these struggles, be he
goes on in Roman 8:1-4 to say that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
made me free from the law of sin and death”; “the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk, not after the flesh, by after the Spirit”. In Galatians 5:16 Paul says “this I say
then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”. In Ephesians 2:2
“wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of
disobedience”. Before Christ you followed the world, but now only the children of
disobedience follow the world. In Galatians 6:7-8 we are warned “be not deceived;
God is not mocked for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that
sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit, shall
of the Spirit reap life everlasting”.
In the New Testament, the obedience of Christ stands in contrast to the disobedience
of Adam. The disobedience of Adam brought death, but the perfect obedience of
Christ brought grace, righteousness and life (Romans 5:12-21). Obedience is a
positive, active response to what a person hears. God summons people to active
obedience to His revelation. People’s failure to obey God results in judgment. The
greatest example of obedience based on trust in God is Jesus Christ Himself. He
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant; He humbled Himself and became
obedient to death, even the death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8). Jesus said that
those who love Him would keep His commandments (John 14:15) and in verse 21 He
says “he that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me and he
that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself
to him”. In verse 31 He underscored this by asserting that His own love for the
Father was evidenced by His obeying the Father’s commands. Evidence that a
person is a child of God is continued obedience to the commandments of God (I John
2:3-6) “and hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He
that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby
know we that we are in Him. He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to
walk, even as He walked”.
Sermon by: Harriet Bond
Date: March 9, 2007
Obedience is carrying out the word and will of another person, especially the will of
God. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word “obey” is related to the idea of
hearing and doing. Obedience is an act of submitting to an authority. It is
compliance with the demands or requests of someone over us. The general words
for obedience in both Hebrew and Greek refer to hearing a superior authority. One
Greek word that is translated “obedience” includes the idea of submission to
authority in the sense of arranging or ordering oneself under someone in a place of
command. Obedience to God and human authorities is an obligation stressed in
both the Old Testament and New Testament. Abraham obeyed God in offering Isaac
on the altar (Genesis 22:18). God’s continued blessing upon Israel by virtue of their
covenant was contingent upon their obeying his voice and keeping His covenant
(Exodus 19:5). On the verge of entering Canaan, Moses placed before Israel a
blessing and a curse, the former if they listened to and obeyed the commandments
of the Lord Yahweh, and the latter if they did not (Deuteronomy 28). emphasized to
King Saul that God’s pleasure was not in sacrifice but in obedience
(I Samuel 15:22) said, has the Lord Yahweh as great delight in burned offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord Yahweh? Behold to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams”.
Your obedience should be fueled by your love and not by legalism. When you
consider that your heavenly Father knows all things, and that He wants what’s best
for you; we should honor Him with respect. You know when you were young, you
didn’t want your parents to see you do certain things, sometimes because of the
consequences. Well God is our Father and He is a holy God, not able to be where
sin is. Even the promise of a new covenant emphasized obedience as God’s gift
(Jeremiah 31:33) “but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel, after those days, says the Lord Yahweh, I will put My law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be My people”. When
we came to Jesus the Holy Spirit moved in on the inside of our heart, and if we will
listen, He will direct us.
People us grace as a license to live like the world, but Paul said “what then? Shall
we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you
not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?”
(Romans 6:15-16).
People talk about how even Paul struggled with sin in Romans 7:15-25. Paul is
showing that in the flesh (without Christ) we are subject to these struggles, be he
goes on in Roman 8:1-4 to say that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
made me free from the law of sin and death”; “the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk, not after the flesh, by after the Spirit”. In Galatians 5:16 Paul says “this I say
then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”. In Ephesians 2:2
“wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of
disobedience”. Before Christ you followed the world, but now only the children of
disobedience follow the world. In Galatians 6:7-8 we are warned “be not deceived;
God is not mocked for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that
sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit, shall
of the Spirit reap life everlasting”.
In the New Testament, the obedience of Christ stands in contrast to the disobedience
of Adam. The disobedience of Adam brought death, but the perfect obedience of
Christ brought grace, righteousness and life (Romans 5:12-21). Obedience is a
positive, active response to what a person hears. God summons people to active
obedience to His revelation. People’s failure to obey God results in judgment. The
greatest example of obedience based on trust in God is Jesus Christ Himself. He
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant; He humbled Himself and became
obedient to death, even the death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8). Jesus said that
those who love Him would keep His commandments (John 14:15) and in verse 21 He
says “he that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me and he
that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself
to him”. In verse 31 He underscored this by asserting that His own love for the
Father was evidenced by His obeying the Father’s commands. Evidence that a
person is a child of God is continued obedience to the commandments of God (I John
2:3-6) “and hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He
that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby
know we that we are in Him. He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to
walk, even as He walked”.
Sermon by: Harriet Bond
Date: March 9, 2007
