Knowledge of obedience is not enough:
James 4:17 “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
It is not enough to know what you’ve heard or read in the word of God
about what God wills for you. What matters is that if you know what to
do, that you do it! Having the knowledge about God’s will is not enough.
Knowing the necessity of obedience is not enough. These things are not
the same as being obedient. Knowing what should be done obligates a
person to do it. The advantage of being taught about obedience is not
that we get an “outstanding grade” from God because we get the right
answer. To believe in something is to act like it is so. Hence, the
advantage of believing God’s word and specifically, God’s will is that
we obey it because it is true, good, precious, and real.
Obedience is for our good:
Obedience is for our good. James calls it the “good” which means
beautiful, excellent, noble, or right. Jesus is a King. Jesus dictates
and commands. But they are meant to make us well and happy. Every
command is meant for our good. They are loving guidelines of an
infallibly infinite and wise heavenly Father for the good of those He
loves.
Abraham–faith in obedience:
Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would
later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did
not know where he was going.”
Abraham is mentioned ten times in Hebrews. The great progenitor of
the Jewish people and his wife are now singled out as examples of faith.
The Jews prided themselves on their descent from Abraham, and the great
patriarch is mentioned in the New Testament as one who had faith and
who acted on his faith. In line with this the author gives more space to
Abraham than to any other individual on his list. Abraham accepted
God’s promises and acted on them even though there was nothing to
indicate that they would be fulfilled. This faith is seen in his
acceptance of the promise of a child when Sarah was old and even more in
his readiness to sacrifice that child– the one through whom the promise
was to be fulfilled– when God commanded.
God demands obedience:
Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the
LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God.”
The scriptures clearly teach us that God demands obedience from his
people. We are responsible before God to obey His commands. Obedience to
the commandments of God is utterly crucial in living the Christian
life.
What God wants is a heart response to God demonstrated in the basic
elements of true religion. God has told the people what is good. The
Mosaic law differentiated between good and bad and reflected God’s will
in their religious and social lives.
They were to act “justly”, here in the sense of true religion, i.e.,
the ethical response to God that has a manifestation in social concerns
as well. “To love mercy” is to freely and willingly show kindness to
others. “To walk humbly with your God” means to live in conscious
fellowship with him, exercising a spirit of humility before him. It is
not that sacrifice was completely ineffectual and that simply a proper
heart attitude to God would suffice. Rather, God has no interest in the
multiplication of empty religious acts.
These ethical requirements do not comprise the way of salvation. We
are still called to the exercise of true religion because we are in a
covenant relationship with God in which the law has been placed within
their hearts not abrogated. Our obedience is inspired by the indwelling
Holy Spirit, not by the letter of the law.
We are saved for obedience:
Romans 1:5 “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and
apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience
that comes from faith.”
The desired response to the gospel message is “obedience that comes
from faith”. Paul’s readers were not called, as he was, to apostleship;
they were called “to belong to Jesus Christ” and to be “saints”, the
common term designating believers. The scriptures teach us that we are
saved for obedience. There are two beautiful truths balanced so
wonderfully in Scripture. We are not saved by obedience. Salvation comes
by grace through faith in Christ. But, we are saved for obedience.
The test of love for God:
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
Obedience to God is the proof of our love for Him. True knowledge of
God does not end with speculative ideas but with obedience to the moral
law and with the presence of God’s love in the believer.
2 John 1:6 “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his
commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you
walk in love.”
The test of love is obedience to God’s commands, and the test of
obedience is whether one “walks in love.” Love of God must result in
obedience or it is not true love. Jesus’ own love for you and I was
manifested by his obedience even to death.
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