Obedience

Last updated on January 20, 2023

Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8 CSB

This verse in Hebrews speaks of Jesus. It is interesting to me that there was even something for God to learn when he lived as a man, and that he learned it through suffering.  He experienced suffering in the same way we do, even through the worst form of execution known to man. Yet he suffered well. Because he learned obedience.

Obedience is our call too, though now it comes with an opportunity to embrace his holy peace and to be courageous because the battle we fight has already been won by the one who suffered and obeyed for us.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.

John 16:33 CSB

I wonder if our experience of suffering is made more difficult the less obedient we are.

Certainly that is the case when we raise our children.  When they do not choose what we, as parents, determine is best for them, they suffer the consequences. Natural consequences are true for adults as well.  They can certainly be considered causes of suffering. 

But suffering in the life of a follower of Jesus, or anyone, for that matter, does not always come as a natural consequence of our own choices. It often comes to us because of the choices of others, or even through natural disasters that aren’t anyone’s fault.

No matter the cause of the suffering, for us as for Jesus, it becomes a training ground for learning obedience to the Father God who is sovereign over all things.  In my life, I have found the more I challenge the training, the harder the training is on me.

Is it the same for you?

I’m not looking for harder training. I’m looking for successful training. So, if I must suffer, and it is clear that is going to be part of this life, I want to suffer well. I want to embrace the peace given by Jesus, to be courageous.

I must do what he did and learn obedience.

Obedience – compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority.

Source

That’s a difficult pill for me to swallow.

Let’s get a better understanding of how this is used in the New Testament to help us determine what it looks like for us.

Obedience of faith Romans 1:5 CSB, Romans 16:26 CSB
Obedience leading to righteousness Romans 6:16 CSB
Obedience of the Gentiles Romans 15:18 CSB, Romans 16:26 CSB

And his affection toward you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you received him with fear and trembling.

2 Corinthians 7:15 CSB

By the way, the phrase “with fear and trembling” is “used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfil his duty” (source)

Since I am confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

Philemon 1:21 CSB

Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly,

1 Peter 1:22 CSB

In the biblical sense, obedience to God carries with it the giving of myself completely over to his authority. To do “with fear and trembling” what it is he calls me to do. To love him and to love others. That doesn’t really compute most days.

There are no correlations to that depth of obedience in my daily life with people. Sure, some have authority in certain areas over me, particularly when I worked under a boss in the corporate world, but I don’t have any human relationships to which I’ve given myself completely over to obey whatever they command me to do. Even to my husband. It just feels wrong. Dangerous.

Because people are flawed.

The best and most holy person I know battles a dark and defiled heart just like I do. And I know what my heart is capable of. (Romans 7:14-24 CSB) Why in the world would I trust myself completely to anyone as messed up inside as I can be?

But then, why does scripture say over and over that our obedience to God demonstrates our love for God? Why is obedience to God in this way exalted as a good and holy thing?

If we can even agree with that, then how do we do that? How do we get to where we can?

Let’s take a look at the path to learning obedience:

Obedience begins with the choice to believe

You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe ​– ​and they shudder.

James 2:19 CSB

Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6 CSB

Belief grows into trust.

When we walk forward in our choice to believe, God shows himself in our lives in ways that teach us more about him, his character, and his love toward us. Just like any relationship, the more we go through together, the more trust is built.

Trust grows into faith.

Once trust is built, we can lean on God with increasing reliance as we understand what he is calling us to do in our day-to-day lives that is difficult. It’s not just trusting him in our relationship with him, it’s trusting him in our relationship with the world.

Faith is lived out in obedience.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Once we know the one we have believed and becoming convinced that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to us (2 Timothy 1:11-12 CSB), that he desires our best for us and that he desires his best for the world, he calls us to do hard things, then we walk out the faith, we show evidence of it by obedience. We demonstrate our own love for him.

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 CSB

If we love him, we will obey his commandments. (John 14:15 CSB)

You see, we can’t obey God without loving him. We can follow rules. We can be outwardly religious. But remember, Jesus condemned outward religion in the leaders of his day (Matthew 23:27 CSB).

That’s not what he’s looking for. He’s looking for hearts and minds and souls and strengths turned toward and bathed in the blood of his love. He wants pure and undefiled hearts that obey because they know he is worthy of their obedience. Even when it feels beyond us to do what he is asking.

Jesus had a pure and undefiled heart. He had no sin. But he was tempted as we are. The same draws that we have as humans drew him. Therefore, if Jesus learned obedience, it must have been a difficult thing for him as well. Learning is difficult. Yet he did it.  Through suffering.

Suffering teaches us who God is. Suffering teaches us who we are not. Suffering teaches us who those around us are. Suffering teaches us who is the ruler of this world. Suffering teaches us what pure-hearted obedience requires. Suffering teaches us who the holy one is.

God is holy.

He is the only authority who is not flawed. He is the only authority I can trust. He is always looking out for what’s best for me. He will allow me to hurt, through suffering, in order to grow me stronger, more fruitful, more resilient, more glorious in the unique way he designed me.

But he will never harm me. (Jer 29:11)

He will never destroy me.

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 CSB

He will always keep me. In perfect peace, He says, when my mind is set on him. (Isaiah 26:3 CSB) In obedience and love. With my mind set on him, the suffering is bearable. It has purpose and meaning. I can even hope in the suffering. At the very least, I can appropriately submit to the suffering, with fear and trembling, waiting to see what goodness God has in mind on the other side of it.

Accepting suffering as what God is using to love me well seems paradoxical. And it would be if God were not who he is. My spiritual self must take the rest of me into that loving obedience. It is what is best for me. Because God is what is best for me and he knows what’s coming. He knows the whole story. He knows the way it needs to go to end up glorious and beautiful and whole.

To be whole, I must learn to bow before the King who is worthy.