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| What Is Obedience? |
Last week I asked the questions, Are Christians under law, or grace? and if we are not under law, what are we to be obedient to?
Today I am asking, what is obedience, or, assuming obedience is acheived, what does that obedience look like? I'm not asking what it looks like to human observers. I'm asking, if I could see through your skull and read your mind, what would I see (if you were being truly obedient)?
5 Comments:
Ken Fields
I believe you would see LOVE!
Romans 13:10, "...therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
Obedience is best defined and characterized by LOVE -- that's why it makes the world go 'round!!
Rey
We are to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be obedient in love and in truth. If I was being truly obedient I would be inside loving the Lord above all things and Loving those around me with a pure, yearning love seeing to emulate the Lord in relating to them about Him. Paul would be a good example.
Robin
hmmm, good question! I'd have to say we would increasingly look more like Christ - of course he is our Prophet, Priest, & King ... but I think He is also our example.
Have you ever met a man who lived life fuller, worked with more enthusiasm, or loved more fully than Christ Jesus?
Daniel
Surrender.
Johnny T. Helms
David, I am so thankful that you nor anyone else (humanly speaking, of course) can see into my "skull" or brain or heart. If you were looking for perfect obedience you would have to go elsewhere. And that is where I want to go with your question. Jesus Christ is our perfect obedience. He is our obedience. This doesn't mean that we do not have to obey what the Word teaches those of us who are under grace, it means that when I disobey the will of God I am forgiven on account of His perfect obedience (1Jn.1:5-10, esp.v7). I and all believers are saved by His obedience. Rom.5:19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." That is good news. Heb.5:8-9 "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him..." This "all who obey Him" isn't speaking of a works salvation, that would contradict the message of Hebrews, but of the call of God that results in a glad obedience that is albeit, imperfect and inconsistent at best. Obedience like justification and repentance is a gift, a part of God's grace toward us in Jesus Christ. Rom.1:5, "Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ." If you looked inside my mind and my heart for obedience you and I would both be embarrased and I would be ashamed. But you would also see one who has come to love the truth that He is my obedience and He is my consistency. When I sin (and I do all the time, "I'm Bad") I do not trust in anything within me to make up for that sin. I trust in Him who took up that sin for me. My obedience erratically flows from that.
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