May 20th, 2025
This week, I want to share with you what’s been on my heart about our obedience to God. The definition of obedience is “compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority.” Obedience is necessary for order in every aspect of society. The military is example in which we can clearly see the requirement for obedience. Not every soldier knows why they obey, but they have been trained to submit to authority so the military can mobilize quickly when a decision is made. We see the necessity of obedience in families. Children will not always understand why they have to obey, but when a family functions correctly, every rule or direction is for their good and protection. Even things as simple as traffic laws require obedience. There’s nothing forcing you to stop at a red light. You obey the established laws so there is order on the road.
Obedience to God’s word is absolutely essential in our walk with God. After the law was given to Moses and the Israelites in the Old Testament, God said,
“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32)
Jesus came to fulfill every commandment, and He said in Matthew 28:18-20 before He ascended, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.”
The verse above is commonly called “the great commission” and part of that commission as disciples of Jesus is to teach His commands. They are absolutely essential.
However, what is even more significant than our obedience is our motivation for obedience.
See, the pharisees and all the religious leaders were experts in the laws of God. They had even added rules and regulations to make sure they kept the rules God established. However, they completely missed the point. John 5:39-40 records Jesus saying,
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
The commandments of God themselves do not give life. Even careful obedience to God’s word, alone, will not give life.
Obedience to God’s command without having a revelation of why will eventually lead to spiritual decay, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. We should obey God’s word even if we don’t understand, but it must lead us to a deeper understanding of who God is. A child can clean his room 1,000 times because he is told to, but that will not make him love cleaning. In the same way, we can’t just do what God says without expecting to experience the One who gives the command, because the purpose of every command is to lead us closer to Him and give us life.
John 14:21 says,
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
1 John 5:1-4 says,
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
Obedience out of obligation will feel like a burden and produce death, but obedience birthed in love will always produce freedom and good fruit.
I’ve heard the expression “blind faith” many times, but faith isn’t actually blind. Faith is looking with the eyes of your heart instead of your natural eyes.
Hebrews 11:8 and 10 says,
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
Abraham didn’t know where exactly he was going but he was looking toward something. He had his eyes fixed on the vision and promise God had given him. He wasn’t looking at the years and the desert stretched before him. He was looking toward a city of promise – a hope and vision God birthed in his heart. His spiritual eyes were wide open. Faith is not blind but focused on a reality higher than the one we see with our natural eyes.
In Ephesians 1:18 the apostle Paul prayed that the people would have “the eyes of their hearts enlightened,” to know the hope to which they were called.
Philippians 1:8 says of Jesus:
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.”
Jesus was obedient unto death, but He was not blindly obedient. He said time and time again that He knew what His Father was asking Him to do, and He knew why. Jesus’ obedience was founded in the most intimate relationship that any man has ever known with the Father. John 5:19 says,
‘Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”’
It was “for the joy set before Him that [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus was obedient unto death out of love for His Father and love for the vision God had given Him – a bride bought with His own blood, no longer separated by sin and darkness. It was for love that He endured the cross.
In John 17:26 Jesus said,
“I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”
His purpose was to make known the love of the Father. When we encounter that love, fear is removed, and we too become motivated to obey by love. 1 John 4:18 says,
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
The power of obedience is found when we love and trust the One who gives the command. God will ask us to do things that may not make sense for a moment, but we step in faith toward the vision God has given, as Abraham did, and as Jesus did. Obedience is not blind, but is motivated by love and trust, and it always produces fruit. His Word is life when we keep it and encounter the One who breathed it into existence. This week, we encourage you to encounter the One who has better plans for you than you could ever have for yourself. We can trust God’s heart, His Spirit, and His Word. The only way we can obey in complete freedom is to know that He is truly good, and He loves us with perfect love. Jesus died so we could walk in the same love and intimacy that He walked in. There is so much freedom in that love!
Obedience to God’s word is absolutely essential in our walk with God. After the law was given to Moses and the Israelites in the Old Testament, God said,
“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32)
Jesus came to fulfill every commandment, and He said in Matthew 28:18-20 before He ascended, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.”
The verse above is commonly called “the great commission” and part of that commission as disciples of Jesus is to teach His commands. They are absolutely essential.
However, what is even more significant than our obedience is our motivation for obedience.
See, the pharisees and all the religious leaders were experts in the laws of God. They had even added rules and regulations to make sure they kept the rules God established. However, they completely missed the point. John 5:39-40 records Jesus saying,
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
The commandments of God themselves do not give life. Even careful obedience to God’s word, alone, will not give life.
Obedience to God’s command without having a revelation of why will eventually lead to spiritual decay, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. We should obey God’s word even if we don’t understand, but it must lead us to a deeper understanding of who God is. A child can clean his room 1,000 times because he is told to, but that will not make him love cleaning. In the same way, we can’t just do what God says without expecting to experience the One who gives the command, because the purpose of every command is to lead us closer to Him and give us life.
John 14:21 says,
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
1 John 5:1-4 says,
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
Obedience out of obligation will feel like a burden and produce death, but obedience birthed in love will always produce freedom and good fruit.
I’ve heard the expression “blind faith” many times, but faith isn’t actually blind. Faith is looking with the eyes of your heart instead of your natural eyes.
Hebrews 11:8 and 10 says,
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
Abraham didn’t know where exactly he was going but he was looking toward something. He had his eyes fixed on the vision and promise God had given him. He wasn’t looking at the years and the desert stretched before him. He was looking toward a city of promise – a hope and vision God birthed in his heart. His spiritual eyes were wide open. Faith is not blind but focused on a reality higher than the one we see with our natural eyes.
In Ephesians 1:18 the apostle Paul prayed that the people would have “the eyes of their hearts enlightened,” to know the hope to which they were called.
Philippians 1:8 says of Jesus:
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.”
Jesus was obedient unto death, but He was not blindly obedient. He said time and time again that He knew what His Father was asking Him to do, and He knew why. Jesus’ obedience was founded in the most intimate relationship that any man has ever known with the Father. John 5:19 says,
‘Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”’
It was “for the joy set before Him that [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus was obedient unto death out of love for His Father and love for the vision God had given Him – a bride bought with His own blood, no longer separated by sin and darkness. It was for love that He endured the cross.
In John 17:26 Jesus said,
“I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”
His purpose was to make known the love of the Father. When we encounter that love, fear is removed, and we too become motivated to obey by love. 1 John 4:18 says,
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
The power of obedience is found when we love and trust the One who gives the command. God will ask us to do things that may not make sense for a moment, but we step in faith toward the vision God has given, as Abraham did, and as Jesus did. Obedience is not blind, but is motivated by love and trust, and it always produces fruit. His Word is life when we keep it and encounter the One who breathed it into existence. This week, we encourage you to encounter the One who has better plans for you than you could ever have for yourself. We can trust God’s heart, His Spirit, and His Word. The only way we can obey in complete freedom is to know that He is truly good, and He loves us with perfect love. Jesus died so we could walk in the same love and intimacy that He walked in. There is so much freedom in that love!
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