Obedience

Obey - To carry out or fulfill the command, order, or instruction of; to carry out or comply with (a command, for example); to behave obediently.

As a young child, we are taught to obey. When our parents say, “No”, we don’t do it again. When our parents say, “Come”, we come right away. Or at least we try to.

There are a lot of different things to obey. We need to obey our teachers, our parents, the government, the law, and most importantly, God.

In Acts 5:29, Peter and the apostles say, “We must obey God rather than men.”

God is the ultimate being that we are supposed to obey. If something our parents, teachers, government officials, or law say go against God’s word, we need to obey the ultimate authority.

God

In Jeremiah 42:6, it says, “Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

We’re supposed to obey the Lord, even when it might be hard or end in persecution.

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.”

In Deuteronomy 11:26-28, we see that we have a choice. We can either obey God, and get a blessing, or disobey God, and get a curse. But, it is not always that easy. At the time, we may disobey because it is easier, or faster, or because everyone else is doing it. We see so many times throughout the Bible where it is better in the long run to obey the Lord.

Deuteronomy 30:8 - “And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today.”

It simply states that we are to obey the Lord.

Parents

In Ephesians 6:1, it says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

Going back to Acts 5:29, we see that we are supposed to obey our parents, but in what the Lord says. So even if our parents say to do something, if it is against the Lord and His conduct, we cannot and should not do it.

“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” Colossians 3:20 is a little confusing considering Acts 5:29. We are supposed to obey our parents in everything; we can’t just pick what we want to do. And it NEEDS to be in line with what God says.

Government

Romans 13:1-7 are the popular verses when it comes to obeying the government.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

God puts people in charge for a reason and we need to respect that. After all, God always has a plan. Job 42:2 proves that. And we can’t just obey them. We have to respect them and be honoring. Does that mean we don’t stand for what’s right and talk to our representatives? No, but we need to do it in a respectful way.

Acts 5:29 especially applies to governments.

Moral of the story: We need to obey all those in authority. But, we need to make sure it is God’s way first.

Hope you are encouraged!