Obedience to God in Christian preaching emphasizes wholehearted submission to His will, not mere external compliance. Illustrations often use images of tangible symbols like ribbons or barriers removed by divine providence to show that true obedience flows from the heart and honors God's commandments (1 Samuel 15:22; John 14:15). It highlights that God values genuine obedience over superficial acts.
Prompt obedience in giving is crucial; delay can cause missed opportunities.
Timing counts, too, so our obedience must be prompt. A businessman went to a missionary society with $280 toward sending a new recruit overseas. He was told that he was too late. They had just canceled her passage for lack of the money. In tears he then confessed, "God told me to give it some days ago, but I delayed."
Obedience is the gateway through which knowledge and love enter the heart.
It is difficult to tell which is more important, the proclamation of the grace of God or submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, since the two are so interrelated. Anne Sullivan, who tutored young Helen Keller who was deaf, dumb, and blind, said, "I saw clearly that it was useless to try to teach her language or anything else until she learned to obey me. I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of a child."
Obedience motivated by love protects, unlike legalism which breeds fear and guilt.
Ancil Jenkins shares this illustration: "'Fasten your seat belt,'I said to my wife, Elaine, the other day. 'It is the law, you know.'As she fastened her seat belt, I thought, 'Dummy, that is not the reason you want her buckled up. You want her protected from the harm of any accident you might drive her into.'How shallow would be my concern if I was more in fear of paying a fine than in her being seriously hurt! "How much this can describe our approach to our obedience to God! Almost all we do is from mixed motives. Yet which motive is overriding? Do we obey because we fear God's wrath and judgment? Do we feel He will break our leg or burn down our house if we disobey? Do we feel that Christianity is just a set of rules to be obeyed and our satisfaction comes from doing a good job of keeping rules? "The result of such an attitude will only breed fear and guilt. Fear comes from any failure to obey, and there will be such failure. Guilt comes from many sources, such as finding there was a law you had been failing to obey. Any failure at perfect obedience can lead to regarding some laws as more important than others. All this can lead to a disregard of others who do not keep laws as well as we do (Luke 18:1). It can lead us to giving more attention to the minute details and neglecting the major virtues God desires us to have (Matthew 23:23). We become ridiculous gnat strainers and camel swallowers (Matthew 23:24). "We should obey God because we love Him. We obey because He has done so much for us and we have done so little for Him. We obey because love is never content to accept but must always give. Jesus said, 'If you love Me, you will do what I command' (John 14:15). We then come to realize that our disobedience not only breaks the laws of God, it also breaks the heart of God. How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! (Psalms 78:40). "Such obedience is far fuller, richer, and freer than can ever come from a legal motivation. Imagine a woman who is a nurse and a mother. She may work at a hospital all day caring for the sick. When she has worked eight hours, she goes home. Upon arriving home, she finds her child is seriously ill. She will then give her child the same care she gives the hospital patients. However, when she has cared for her child for eight hours, she will not quit. She gives care no one can buy. The difference is the motivation. "What is your major motivation? Seek to know God better, and you will find yourself obeying out of love. It will become 'richer, fuller, deeper'and will become 'sweeter as the years go by.'"
True obedience means doing God's will fully and with self-discipline the first time.
Mary Murray tells this on herself: "My dear mother must have chuckled at the little girl who obeyed 'halfway.'Mom loved to have her house just right. On Saturday, when she asked me to dust the furniture frames and the delicate glassware, I stared in awe at the task before me. I dusted as fast as I could, going 'around'the glassware; not picking them up and missing spots here and there on the furniture. Sometimes I would have to redust after 'inspection.'She was teaching me to 'obey right'the first time and to use self-discipline."
Our responsibility is obedience; God handles obstacles in our path.
A pilot was having trouble bringing his plane down to land. From the control tower, he was given instructions. "But there is a pole there," he objected. The answer came back, "You take care of the instructions; we will take care of the obstructions." So with the child of God. In the Word, he or she has God's instructions. God will take care of the obstructions. It is ours to obey the instructions from God's Word.
Disobedient Christians often make excuses to avoid following God's commandments.
Some Christians have the same idea about the commandments of God as a little boy who was playing with his sister. A most unpleasant woman who lived near by had been finding fault with them, and the boy said, "I just hate her!" His little sister, greatly shocked, said, "Oh no! The Bible says we must love everyone." "Oh, well," he remarked, "old Mrs. Blank wasn't born when that was written." In the same way the disobedient Christian always finds an excuse.
The blue ribbon on Israelite garments reminded them to obey God and live holy lives.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband (ribbon) of blue … .that ye may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” Numbers 15:38-40
Blue is the heavenly color. The ribbon of blue on the border of the Israelite’s robe was to be a constant reminder that he belonged to the God of heaven, and was responsible to so behave himself as to glorify his heavenly Master.
The story is told of a young dauphin, or crown prince, of France, who was placed under the care of an English tutor that he might be educated for his high and lofty station. The tutor often found it very difficult to control the young prince, who was very high-spirited and independent. Not possessing the authority to administer punishment to one in such an exalted position, the tutor finally hit upon a plan whereby he hoped to insure better behavior.
One morning he produced a purple rosette, which he fastened upon the jacket of the prince, explaining that as it was the royal color, it was to be worn as an evidence of his regal station. “If,” said the tutor, “I ever find you behaving in an unprincely manner, I shall simply point to the rosette, and you will understand.”
It proved to be a most effective method of discipline. Occasionally, the prince would indulge in an outburst of unseemly language or act in an unworthy manner. The silent appeal to the purple was enough to bring him to his senses and to procure an apology and a promise of better self-control in the future.
So believers today are responsible to behave in accordance with their heavenly relationship — to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called.” The ribbon of blue is to be seen upon all our garments as we walk through this world to the glory of God.
A stubborn child refuses to ask forgiveness despite consequences and coaxing.
At one time my sister had trouble with her little boy, and the father said, "'Why, Sammy, you must go now and ask your mothers forgiveness." The little fellow said he wouldn't. The father says, "You must. If you don't go and ask your mothers forgiveness I shall have to undress you and put you to bed." He was a bright, nervous little fellow, never still a moment, and the father thought he would have such a dread of being undressed and put to bed. But the little fellow wouldn't, so they undressed him and put him to bed. The father went to his business, and when he came home at noon he said to his wife: "Has Sammy asked your forgiveness?" "No," she said, "he hasn't." So the father went to him and said, "Why, Sammy, why don't you ask your mother's forgiveness?" The little fellow shook his head, "Won't do it." "But, Sammy, you have got to." "Couldn't." The father went down to his office, and stayed all the afternoon, and when he came home he asked his wife, "Has Sammy asked your forgiveness?" "No, I took something up to him and tried to have him eat, but he wouldn't." So the father went up to see him, and said, "Now, Sammy, just ask your mother's forgiveness, and you may be dressed and come down to supper with us." "Couldn't do it," The father coaxed, but the little fellow "couldn't do it." That was all they could get out of him. You know very well he could, but he didn't want to. Now, the hardest thing a man has to do is to become a Christian, and it is the easiest. That may seem a contradiction, but it isn't. The hard point is because he don't want to.
The hardest thing for a man to do is to give up his will. That night they retired, and they thought surely early in the morning, he will be ready to ask his mothers forgiveness. The father went to him--that was Friday morning--to see if he was ready to ask his mother's forgiveness, but he "couldn't." The father and mother felt so bad about it they couldn't eat; they thought it was to darken their whole life. Perhaps that boy thought that father and mother didn't love him. Just what many sinners think because God won't let them have their own way. The father went to his business, and when he came home he said to his wife, "Has Sammy asked your forgiveness?" "No." So he went to the little fellow and said, "'Now, Sammy, are you not going to ask your mother's forgiveness?" "Can't," and that was all they could get out of him. The father couldn't eat any dinner; it was like death in the house. It seemed as if the boy was going to conquer his father and mother. Instead of his little will being broken, it looked very much as if he was going to break theirs. Late Friday afternoon, "Mother, mother, forgive," says Sammy--"me." And the little fellow said "me," and he sprang to his feet and said: "I have said it, I have said it. Now dress me, and take me down to see father. He will be so glad to know I have said it." And she took him down, and when the little fellow came in he said, "I've said it, I've said it."
Oh, my friends, it is so easy to say, "I will arise and go to my God." It is the most reasonable thing you can do. Isn't an unreasonable thing to hold out? Come right to God just this very hour. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
God protects and justifies those who obey His commands, bearing responsibility for their obedience.
The rich farmer set a poor man to work to dig a ditch, or cast up a bank. If he be afterward troubled for it, his master is concerned to bear him harmless. David saith, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds." Whilst we are engaged about our Master's business, and in his work, he is engaged to protect us, and bear us out in it. If what we do is done under the command of God, the responsibility of its result does not lie with us. He who made the law will answer for those who keep it. If a man should, through obedience to the law of the Sabbath, lose his situation, his poverty would be no fault of his. If through strict honesty he should be despised of his employer, and forfeit his place, he need not blame himself for his dismission. These things are to be taken joyfully as a part of our living sacrifice to God. We need not fear that God will fail to justify us if we walk in the way of his commandments. Our quarrel is his quarrel if it be occasioned by our following his orders. Jesus asks of every persecutor, "Why persecutest thou me?" When his servants are molested he is wounded. He will see us through with the business, and teach our opposers that in us they oppose him also. When we go a way of our own choosing, we must bear our own hazard; but when our path is mapped out for us, we have the Lord engaged with us, and his name and honour would be compromised should we fail. Oh, happy condition! We are in the same boat with Jesus. He bade us trust, promising us salvation by faith and, as we have trusted, he must and will save us. He bade us come out from the world, and, as we have come out, he must be a Father unto us. He bids us preach the gospel, and, as we do preach it, he must save men thereby. Let us more and more pledge the honour of his name, resting sure that he will never allow his orders to be discredited.
When God clearly leads, obey regardless of consequences; otherwise, prudently weigh them.
The rule is this (there may be great difficulty in applying it in individual cases; but there can be no doubt as to the soundness of the general principle), wherever we are sure that duty leads, wherever we are sure God bids us go; then that way we should go, whatever, and however painful, the consequences may be. In all other cases, a prudent man will carefully weigh the consequences of what he may think of doing, and be guided by the consideration of them; but if God clearly points the way, that way he ought to take, disregarding consequences.
— Boyd
Obedience to God's commands helps believers avoid temptation and evil paths.
"I have orders, positive orders, not to go there, — orders that I dare not disobey," said a youth who was being tempted to a smoking and gambling saloon. "Come! don't be so womanish: come along like a man!" shouted the youths. "No: I can't break orders," said John. "What special orders have you got? Come, show them to us, if you can. Show us the orders." John took a neat little book from his pocket, and read aloud: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away!" Now," said John, "you see my orders forbid my going with you. They are God's orders; and by his help I mean to keep them."
A boy chooses to obey his mother's command despite peer pressure and ridicule.
Several boys were playing marbles. In the midst of their sport, the rain began to fall. Freddie S. stopped, and said, "Boys, I must go home: mother said I must not go out in the rain."—"Your mother,—fulge! The rain won't hurt you any more than it will us," said two or three voices at once. Freddie turned upon them with a look of pity, and the courage of a hero, and replied, "I'll not disobey my mother for any of you!"
Faithful obedience is more reliable than seeking safety in uncertain times.
In evil times, it fares best with them that are most careful about duty, and least about safety.—Hammond.—All God's biddings are enablings. A cripple might as well lean upon his shadow for support, as your heart depend upon sincere obedience for salvation.—Berridge.
True obedience is immediate and cheerful, regardless of circumstances or personal comfort.
As when a general commands his army to march, if, then, the soldiers should stand upon terms, and refuse to go except they have better clothes, their pay in hand, or the like, and then they will march,—this would not show them an obedient, disciplined army; but if, at the reading of their orders, they presently break up their quarters, and set forth, though it be midnight when the command come, and they without money, or clothes on their backs, leaving the whole care of themselves for these things to their general, and they only attend how they may best fulfil his commands,—these may be said to march in obedience. Salter.
Following God requires full, cheerful, constant, and upright obedience without division.
It ought to be the great care of every one of us to follow the Lord fully. We must, in a course of obedience to God's will, and service to his honor, follow him universally, without dividing; uprightly, without dissembling; cheerfully, without disputing; and constantly, without declining; and this is following him fully. Matthew Henry.
Obedience requires trust even when reasons are unknown, like following a guide or commander.
If a boy at school is bidden to cipher, and chooses to write a copy instead, the goodness of the writing will not save him from censure. We must obey, whether we see the reason or not; for God knows best. A guide through an unknown country must be followed without demur. A captain yields complete authority to the pilot. A soldier in battle must fight when and where he is ordered: when the conflict is over, he may reflect upon and perceive the wisdom of his commander in movements, that, at the time of their execution, were perplexing. The farmer must obey God's natural laws of the seasons if he would win a harvest; and we must all obey God's spiritual laws if we would reap happiness here and hereafter.
A boy remains at his post faithfully and courageously despite his father's death and danger.
The commander of the ship-of-war "Orient," before the battle of the Nile, placed his son Cassabianca, thirteen years of age, on certain duty, to stay at his post till relieved by his father's order. Soon after, the father was slain. The boy held his post in the midst of fearful carnage, ignorant of his father's fate; and, while the sailors were deserting the burning and sinking ship, he cried, "Father, may I go?" The permission did not come from his dead father's lips; and there he stood alone, firm at his post, and perished in the flames.
Sincere obedience means obeying all of Christ's commands without picking and choosing.
A man sincerely obedient will not pick and choose what commands to obey, and what to reject. He will lay such a charge upon his whole man as Mary, the mother of Christ, did upon all the servants at the feast,—"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Eyes, ears, hands, heart, lips, body and soul, do you all seriously and affectionately observe whatever Jesus Christ says unto you, and do it. T. Brooks.
God requires obedience to accompany profession before accepting our worship or service.
Pharmaces sent a crown to Caesar at the same time he rebelled against him; but Caesar returned the crown and this message back, "Let him return to his obedience first, and then I will accept the crown by the way of recognizance." Thus God will not be crowned with our bare profession, except we crown that with a suitable conversation. Spencer.
The Rechabites faithfully obeyed God's command to abstain from wine and live simply.
The Rev. Joseph Wolf says:—On my arrival in Mesopotamia, some Jews that I saw there, pointed me to one of the ancient Rechabites. He stood before me, wild, like an Arab—holding the bridle of his horse in his hand. I showed him the Bible in Hebrew and Arabic, which he was much rejoiced to see, as he could read both languages, but had no knowledge of the New Testament. After having proclaimed to him the tidings of salvation, and made him a present of the Hebrew and Arabic Bibles and Testaments, I asked him,—“Whose descendant are you?”
“Mousa,” said he, boisterously, “is my name, and I will show you who were my ancestors;” on which he immediately began to read from the fifth to the eleventh verse of Jeremiah xxxv.
“Where do you reside?” said I.
Turning to Genesis x. 27, he replied, “At Hadoram, now called Simar by the Arabs: at Uzal, now called Sanan by the Arabs;” and again referring to the same chapter, verse 30th, he continued, “At Mesha, now called Mecca, in the deserts around those places. We drink no wine, and plant no vineyard, and sow no seed; and live in tents, as Jonadab, our father, commanded us: Hobab was our father too. Come to us, and you will find us sixty thousand in number; and you see thus the prophecy has been fulfilled, ‘Therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me forever;’” and saying this, Mousa, the Rechabite, mounted his horse and fled away, and left behind a host of evidence in favor of sacred writ.
Generous giving to the poor leads to unexpected provision and blessings.
Tiberius II. was so liberal to the poor, that his wife blamed him for it. Speaking to him once of his wasting his treasure by this means, he told her, "he should never want money so long as, in obedience to Christ's command, he supplied the necessities of the poor." Shortly after this, he found a great treasure under a marble table which had been taken up; and news was also brought him of the death of a very rich man, who had left his whole estate to him.
Children should obey parents unless commanded to sin, prioritizing obedience to God.
The American Sunday School 143. 144
Herald, states, that a little girl, six years old, in a Sunday school, was repeating the fifth commandment. Her teacher endeavored to show her in what way she was to honor her parents, and said, "You must honor your parents by obeying them." "O, ma'am," exclaimed the child, "I cannot keep that commandment." "Why cannot you keep it, my dear?" "Because, ma'am, when my mother tells me to do one thing, my father tells me to do another. Now, just before I came here, my mother told me to stay up stairs and learn my lesson, and my father told me to come down and play: now how could I obey them both? No, no," closing her little hands as if in despair, "no, no, ma'am, it is impossible for me ever to keep that commandment." In such a case, however, a child should obey the father unless he bade her to commit some sin. Neither father or mother should be obeyed then.
Governor Kekuanaoa honored the Sabbath by refusing to disturb worship for a salute.
BREAKER RE-BUKED.—An incident, says a missionary, occurred on the arrival of the United States at Honolulu, worthy of record. The frigate came to anchor on Sabbath morning. Captain Armstrong immediately sent off a lieutenant to make the necessary arrangements for firing a national salute. The lieutenant, in company with the United States consul, called at the residence of governor Kekuanaoa, but he was at church. A note was despatched informing him of the frigate's arrival, and that an officer was ready to make arrangements for a salute. The governor returned an answer that he was at divine service, but would attend to the business on the following day, at nine o'clock, A. M. Hence the quiet of our Sabbath was not disturbed by the discharge of cannon on sea or land. I could not but contrast the conduct of governor Kekuanaoa with that of the commanders of most vessels of war, as well as most of the public men in many parts of Christendom.
A boy obeyed God's law over his mother's command, trusting God's provision.
Of a good man who from his love to the sacred volume, and his extensive knowledge of its contents, was called "the walking Bible," it is recorded, that when he was very young, he was, with his parents, oppressed with great poverty. In the garden in which their cottage, or rather hovel stood, there was a large pear-tree, more venerated for its age than valued for its fruitfulness. The mother requested him to cut it down for firewood. He heard the request in silence; she repeated it, and he still hesitated. At length he said, "Mother, I ought to obey you, but I must first obey God. The tree is not ours. It belongs to our landlord: and you know that God says, 'Thou shalt not steal.' I therefore hope you will not make me cut it down." She desisted; for a day or two longer they endured the cold, when she peremptorily renewed her demand that the tree should be cut down. He then said, "Mother, the good Being has often helped us, and supplied our want when we have been in trouble. Let us wait till this time to-morrow. Then, if we do not find some relief, though I am sure it will be wrong, yet if you make me do it, I will cut down the tree in obedience to your command." She yielded, and he, in his simple manner, retired, and in secret earnestly prayed to God to interfere, and prevent them from displeasing him by a transgression of his holy law. He salhed forth the next morning, and wandering about found a man whose cart wheel had broken under a heavy load of coal. He told his distress to the man, who was induced to leave the coals for him to carry away, with the understanding that whenever he called for the money, if the family were able, they should pay it. He never after, however, made his appearance.
Resting on the Sabbath benefits both the sheep and their owner, leading to better results.
Two neighbors in the state of New-York, each with a drove of sheep, started on the same day for a distant market. One started several hours before the other, and traveled uniformly every day. The other rested every Sabbath. Yet he arrived at the market first, with his flock in a better condition than that of the other. In giving an account of it, he said that he drove his sheep on Monday about seventeen miles, on Tuesday not over sixteen, and so lessening each day, till on Saturday he drove them only about eleven miles. But on Monday, after resting on the Sabbath, they would travel again seventeen miles, and so on each week. But his neighbor's sheep, which were not allowed to rest on the Sabbath, before they arrived at the market, could not travel without injury
Resting on the Sabbath enables greater progress and endurance in a long journey.
At a tavern in Pennsylvania, a man who had arrived the evening before was asked on Sabbath morning whether he intended to pursue his journey on that day. He answered, "No." He was asked, "Why not?" "Because," said he, "I am on a long journey, and wish to perform it as soon as I can. I have long been accustomed to travel on horseback, and have found that, if I stop on the Sabbath, my horse will travel farther during the week than if I do not."
Resting on the Sabbath allows one to surpass others who do not rest.
A gentleman started from Connecticut with his family for Ohio. He was on the road about four weeks, and rested every Sabbath. From morning to night others, journeying the same way, were passing by. Before the close of the week he passed them. Those who went by late on the Sabbath he passed on Monday; those who went by a little earlier he passed on Tuesday; and so on, till before the next Sabbath he had passed them all. His horses were no better than theirs, nor were they better fed. But having had the benefit of resting on the Sabbath, according to the command of God and the law of nature, they could out-trave those who had violated that law.
Allowing teams to rest on the Sabbath improves efficiency and preserves their condition.
A manufacturing company, which had been accustomed to carry their goods to market with their own teams, kept them employed seven days in a week, as that was the time in which they could go to the market and return. But by permitting the teams to rest on the Sabbath, they found that they could drive them the same distance in six days, that they formerly did in seven, and with the same keeping preserve them in better order.
Resting horses on the Sabbath increases their daily travel capacity and preserves their health.
A gentleman in Vermont, who was in the habit of driving his horses twelve miles a day seven days in a week, afterwards changed his practice, and drove them but six days, allowing them to rest one. He then found that, with the same keeping, he could drive them fifteen miles a day, and preserve them in as good order as before. So that a man may rest on the Sabbath, and let his horses rest, yet promote the benefit of both, and be in all respects the gainer.
Keeping the Sabbath rest leads to better market results and convinces others to follow.
A number of men started together from Ohio, with droves of cattle for Philadelphia. They had often been before, and had been accustomed to drive on the Sabbath as on other days. One had now changed his views as to the propriety of traveling on that day. On Saturday he inquired for pastures. His associates wondered that so shrewd a man should think of consuming so great a portion of his profits by stopping with such a drove a whole day. He stopped, however, and kept the Sabbath. They, thinking that they could not afford to do so, went on. On Monday he started again. In the course of the week he passed them, arrived first in the market, and sold his cattle to great advantage. So impressed were the others with the benefits of thus keeping the Sabbath, that ever afterwards they followed his example # 379. Physical Benefits to Man.
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