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Great Themes of the Bible Series
#12 Obedience
What radical thinking, both for his own time and for ours! But it is particularly offensive to our time,
I suspect, in view of the fact that we have created a sort of pick-and-choose Christianity that permits
would-be disciples alternately to select or
to opt out of the demands of discipleship.
"The man who says, ‘I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. . . . This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome . . ."
It’s not always easy to smile and be nice, When we are called to sacrifice.
It’s not always easy to put others first, Especially when tired and feeling our worst.
It’s not always easy to do the Father’s will. It wasn’t so easy to climb Calvary’s hill.
But we as His children, should learn to obey; Not seeking our own but seeking His way.
It’s not always easy to fight the good fight. But it is always good and it is always right!
- Glenda Fulton Davis
Before proceeding with today's sermon, I must warn you that it has been given a "rating" for language that will be offensive to some. In this case, I am more worried about adults than children or adolescents. The word that may offend some as it occurs again and again in the lesson is obey, that's o-b-e-y.
Strange as it may sound to those who are offended by this term, Jesus used both the concept and the very word throughout his teaching career. So that any doubters out there will know that I am not misrepresenting him on this matter, I will quote him only as he is cited by his dear friend John.
First, the concept from his lips: "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34). To do the will of someone else is obedience by anyone's definition. It is surrendering oneself to another as a slave in Jesus' culture would have been required to do to his master.
Second,
not merely the ideology of obedience but the very four-letter word in
question came from his lips in statements like this one: "If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching" (John 14:23). As if it were not enough that Jesus
practiced obedience in his own life, he enjoined it on all who would claim to
love and follow him. Because he was able to surrender his will to God, he did
not think it unfair to ask those who were going to call themselves his disciples
to adopt the same manner of life.
What radical thinking, both for his own time and for ours! But it is
particularly offensive to our time, I suspect, in view of the fact that we have
created a sort of pick-and-choose Christianity that permits would-be disciples
alternately to select or to opt out of the demands of discipleship. The word
definitely belongs in the vocabulary of someone who has committed himself to be
Jesus' disciple on his terms. I warned you: The language of today's sermon may
offend some.
We don't have the experience of slavery to explain how discipleship entails
submission, apprenticeship, and obedience. But our culture does have a few
relationships left that epitomize how discipleship and obedience go hand in
hand. The true devotee of — let's say — some great musician or painter yields
his master a wholehearted submission. In practicing scales or mixing colors, he
knows it is wisdom simply to watch, do as told, and learn the techniques of his
mentor. It is no different with a medical student interning under her professor,
a trainee working with the company's best salesman, or an athlete under a great
coach. In one's wholehearted surrender to the tutelage of his maestro,
professor, or coach, he or she is being discipled to a vocation and career.
It is fundamentally the same in spiritual things. This much is certain: One does
not have the right to call himself a "disciple" so long as he is still charting
his own course. A disciple is a pupil, a novice in spiritual things who looks
constantly to a tutor and coach. Thus Christ's disciples come to him and ask to
learn the lost art of obeying God as he did. And the only way of learning
faithfulness from him is to give up your will to him and to make the doing of
his will the one passion and delight of your heart.
Did you happen to see the movie City Slickers? Billy Crystal is Mitch,
one of several guys who set out to resolve their mid-life crises by going to a
dude ranch and helping with a cattle drive. The boss of the drive is a crusty
old cowboy named Curly, played by Jack Palance. In a contemplative scene in that
otherwise comedic film, Mitch asks Curly to tell him the secret of life. Holding
up a single gloved finger, Curly responds, "One thing. Figure out that ‘one
thing' and nothing else matters."
Do you know your "one thing"? Have you figured out the meaning of life? For
Jesus, the meaning of life — his "food" he called it — was his Father's will.
For his disciples, it is to live as he lived and to learn how to obey his
Father's will in the fulness of joy.
Ralph Barton was one of the original cartoonists for The New Yorker
magazine. When he was found dead by his own hand on May 20, 1931, he had left a
detailed suicide note. He wrote, in part: "I have had few difficulties, many
friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, and from house to
house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing
devices for getting through twenty-four hours a day." Barton never found his
"one thing." Many others who don't commit suicide never find theirs either, and
they have this awful sense of enduring a pointless existence. They want it to
end, but they fear death as much or more as they hate life.
There is only one thing worthy of being the single defining commitment for your
life. And it isn't career, fame, or money. It isn't even being a good citizen
and having a family to love and by whom to be loved. It is the duplication of
Jesus' life of single- minded devotion to God, pouring out your life in
obedience to him.
The Barrier to Obedience
The single greatest barrier to such a life is
not the frustrating impossibility of pleasing God but the rebellion of our
sinful flesh. It is human ego, which Ken Blanchard defines as Edging God Out,
that resists the divine will. God is easy to please, in fact, for he counts the
genuine intent of a disciple's heart as full obedience. Honest! It doesn't take
a lot to please God, but it does take more than most of us can give. It takes
whole-hearted surrender, whole-hearted denial of self for his sake.
I can't obey God in every detail of my life, for I am flawed and fallen in my
humanity. And when I speak of being Christ's disciple and obeying God, I am not
talking about my performance but my commitment. I do not think for one moment
that I am saved because of what I have done but solely on account of God's grace
to me through the blood of Jesus. On account of my relationship with him through
that blood, I am counted holy, obedient, and flawless so long as I continually
acknowledge my unholiness, disobedience, and flawedness. Isn't that astounding!
Isn't it flabbergasting! Isn't it too staggering for you to believe on my word
for it!
Because I wouldn't dare ask you to take my word for this, I'm going to return to
the bosom friend of Jesus who wrote extensively both about Jesus' obedience to
the Father and ours to Jesus. John wrote the Fourth Gospel, the Book of
Revelation, and three short epistles. With the exception of Revelation, a major
burden of his writings is to respond to an early form of the heresy called
Gnosticism. It was a dangerous false teaching that threatened the church of God
for the first two centuries of its life.
In the form John addressed, Gnosticism held that spirit is wholly good and
matter is wholly evil. On a Gnostic view, salvation consisted of the spirit's
escape from its material prison. This "escape" was not offered through faith in
Christ but via special knowledge — the Greek term for "knowledge" is gnosis,
thus the terms Gnostics and Gnosticism. Since matter was hopelessly evil and
incapable of redemption, whatever one did with his or her body that otherwise
might be considered immoral didn't really matter. The spirit was being saved,
and the flesh could indulge itself without harm.
John recoiled from this false doctrine in holy horror. In both his Gospel and
epistles, he rejected the Gnostic reinterpretation of Jesus, redemption, and
Christian lifestyle. Christians must be obedient to God and pursue holiness
with all the passion of their hearts. Yet John did not teach obedience in
terms of works righteousness, legalism, or self-righteousness. First John gives
this Spirit-led counsel:
This is the message we have heard from him and
declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to
have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the
truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins
and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make
him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody
does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ,
the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for
ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says,
"I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.
This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as
Jesus did (1 John 1:5-2:6).
Follow his argument closely . . .
1. Is it true that Christians can "walk in the darkness" of immorality and
disobedience to the commands of God? Absolutely not, for God himself is
"light" and those who are Christ's disciples "walk in the light" with him;
walking in the light with him, Jesus' blood keeps us clean from the guilt of sin
(1:5-7).
2. Does this mean that Christians claim to be "above" sin or that we no
longer fall short of the divine ideal of holiness? To the contrary, we
continually acknowledge the failure of our performance (i.e., our disobedience)
in the understanding that Christ is our go- between with the Father and keeps us
clean on the merit of his atoning death (1:8-2:2).
3. So what is the point of our obedience, if it is not the basis of our
salvation and hope? It is the daily proof of your discipleship that allows
the love of God to be "truly made complete" in your experience. You must do more
than claim to be Jesus' disciple, you must walk the talk in obedience (2:2-6).
Did you follow the development of his thought? We aren't saved because we are
initiates with special insights. We're saved because we have a relationship with
God through Jesus, and Jesus' blood is our only hope. Yet we do not interpret
that "privileged position" arrogantly and presume on grace.
Because we owe him everything, we obey him. Because he is Master and we are pupils, we model all we do around him and seek to obey him in all things. Yet we are neither self-righteous nor neurotic in our obedience, for we acknowledge our failures and trust wholly and completely in the power of his blood to keep us secure in the Father's loving heart. That very spirit of contrite penitence in our disobedience is itself the act of obedience that best characterizes true faith in him! In such faith we are kept secure by his power.
Conclusion
Now do you understand why John would get near
the end of this same epistle and write: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as
well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and
carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his
commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This
is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that
overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God"? (1 John
5:1-5).
Why, it makes perfectly good sense. Looked at from the outside by unbelievers or
false teachers, the commands of God appear "burdensome" (i.e., heavy,
oppressive, hard), for they are thinking of those commandments as rungs on a
ladder one climbs to heaven. That is how screened-through-human-understanding
religions always offer their commandments.
From the point of view of an insider to orthodox
Christianity, though, the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ are anything but
oppressive. They are the friendly criteria of living as his disciple. They are
not hurdles, barriers, or rungs on a ladder for us to climb. They are his
gracious provisions for all those seeking to be mentored as obedient children to
the Father in Heaven.
When our children were infants and toddlers, there were no laws on the books
about child safety seats. We were fortunate they were not killed in some of the
sudden stops or in one of the two or three accidents were had with them in the
car. Tragically, many young children did die in those days.
Today there are laws that forbid parents to drive without securing their
children in properly installed safety seats in their vehicles. Believe me, we
have those safety seats in place when one or more of our grandchildren ride with
us today. Even the newest mother has to have a seat installed in whatever
vehicle she is riding in to take her baby home from the hospital. We could even
say: A parent's love is truly made complete in obeying the safety-restraint law
(cf. 1 John 2:5b).
Do you think parents of my generation didn't love our children as much as you
young parents love yours now? But love isn't always enough. We weren't doing
what was best for our babies and needed a protective law to ensure that parental
love did what was best for the children who were at risk. And for all the
nuisance and expense involved in car seats, is there anyone here who thinks they
are "burdensome" or who wants to repeal the law that requires them?
God knows that even the people who love him and other people need guidance. Our
feelings aren't enough. Our desire to do right needs specific education and
commandments. Our love for God and others needs direction. God's commandments
constitute the healthy boundaries within which we love him and other people
authentically and positively. When we obey them, God's love is "truly made
complete" in us (1 John 2:5b). How good he has been to give them. And how wise
we are to receive them joyously unto our salvation.
Nurture refers to that environment in which children are to be raised and that brings together, like a corral gate, all the sides and ingredients for the training corral.
In Ephesians 6:4, the words, “bring up,” are from the Greek word ektrefw which means, “to nurture, nourish, provide for with care that nourishes, feeds, or trains.” In other words we are to provide the kind of care that will promote healthy growth and development. Of course, the context is dealing with spiritual and moral development that flows out of a right relationship with God, walking under God’s control, but it is the fruit of the loving care of godly parents.
When we provide the right kind of nurture, when we use God’s training corral, we can and should expect both happy and obedient children. Many parents would settle for simply obedience, but happy obedience should be the goal. Happy obedience is not too much to expect. Note the verses above such as Psalm 100:2, “serve the Lord with gladness,” and Colossians, “joyously giving thanks to the Father.”
In his book, You and Your Child, Charles R. Swindoll has an excellent comment regarding attitudes. He writes,
We deal as severely with attitudes in our home as we do with actions. A sullen, stubborn spirit is dealt with as directly as an act of lying or stealing. The way you deal with your sons will, in great measure, determine how they will respond to the way God deals with them.4
An illustration: Mother and little Jimmy are in the supermarket and Jimmy sees the inviting candy display (cavity makers) at the checkout stand:
Jimmy: “I want
some candy, Mommy.”
Mother: “No honey, not today.”
Jimmy: “But why? I want some candy. I’m hungry.”
Mother: “It’s too close to supper and you have had enough candy for today.”
Jimmy: “But I want some candy, I WANT some candy . . . ”
Mother: “No Jimmy, now come along. Do you hear me?”
And so goes the battle. Jimmy proceeds to flop on the floor crying and kicking his feet, or he grabs a handful of candy anyway. Finally, in desperation and because people are looking, mother says, “Oh all right, have some candy, but come on, I’m in a hurry.” Jimmy has manipulated his mother. He has not been made to mind, much less with a happy obedience. He has also learned that if he makes a scene in public, he can get his way.
Not every parent will act the same way to such stubbornness, so children quickly learn what it takes to get what they want. Some will pout and whine; others may cuddle up and bat their eye lashes, but if the parent gives in the results are the same. In any case, these children are not learning happy obedience, submission to authority, nor respect or honor for what is right. Instead they are learning to get their own way and to act selfishly and disrespectfully toward their parent’s wishes and wisdom.
Because the disobedience of little children can be cute (at least to their parents and grandparents) the tendency is to laugh and say, “Isn’t she cute?” or “Isn’t he a mess?” But when we do this (and I find this an even greater temptation now that I am eight times a grandparent), we are helping to reinforce disobedience. Parents need to raise their level of expectation to the point they demand and expect obedience but with a happy face.
Roy Lessin tells this story.
One evening we visited some friends for dinner. After dinner the children ran off to play and we parents visited in the living room. Soon it was time to leave, so I called out and told the children that it was time to go. “Okay daddy,” came the quick reply. And within a few seconds both children were in the living room ready with their coats on.
“Did you see that,” my friend exclaimed to his wife. “Yes, I did, that’s amazing,” she replied.
“What’s amazing,” he asked.
“Your kids,” the friend replied. “When you said it was time to go they obeyed without a fuss.”5
What these friends saw as amazing, the other father had come to expect. This was normal behavior because this father used God’s training corral.
God wants children to be happy. Happiness is part of the blessing God wants for our children. God also wants children to be obedient. This is God’s order and plan, and it’s important to realize that disobedient children are never truly happy. These two things go together. Happy obedience includes both happy attitudes and obedient actions.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6:4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up (nourish them) in the discipline (training, nurture) and instruction of the Lord.
What kind of nurture or training provides those ingredients that, when properly brought together act like a corral to contain, control, and train children so they joyfully obey? Scripture promises and teaches that children can be a blessing. Parents do not have to wait in anxious concern and fear in anticipation of those ‘horrible teenage years.’ But neither can they wait until those teenage years to apply the principles of the training corral. So what are the biblical ingredients that make up God’s training corral? Though each will be discussed in the material that follows, God’s training corral contains five necessary sides: love (the all-important context), instruction (the vital content), dedication (of parent and child), discipline (in words and actions), and example (parental reality).
Let’s note a few key verses:
(1) Proverbs 29:17 Correct your son, and he will give you comfort, He will also delight your soul.
“Correct” is the Hebrew yasar, which means “to admonish, discipline, instruct.” It is correction in the form of admonishment, discipline, or instruction that results in education, true understanding. As used in the Old Testament, this word spoke of chastening, correcting, instructing, and providing all that is necessary for the training of children. But all of these ideas are to be expressions of interpersonal relationships of love and caring. This word is used of God’s loving care with Israel and of a father with a son (cf. Deut. 8:1-5).6 The general promise God gives for correcting a child is comfort, rest, and delight. To “correct” is to apply the training corral.
(2) Proverbs 19:18 Discipline your son while there is hope, And do not desire his death.
A better translation is “because there is hope” or “confident expectation.” Compare Job 11:18 and 14:7 where we have the very same construction, but where it is translated, “because there is hope.”
“There is” in the Hebrew refers to the idea of absolute existence. God is telling us this is an absolute of God’s Word to be believed and applied. This is a promise, not merely a warning.
“And do not desire his death” is literally “but unto his death do not lift up your soul.” With this second clause, we have a slight problem of interpretation. There are two possible views: (a) It provides a warning against improper discipline, such as discipline out of revenge, impatience, or uncontrolled anger. In this case we would translate it, “but do not be carried away (i.e., in your discipline) unto his death.” Or, (b) the second clause provides a warning against the consequences of leniency. Derek Kidner, in his commentary on Proverbs, titles this verse “deadly leniency.”7 By their translations, the ASV, KJV, NIV, NASB, and other versions seem to understand this second clause in this way, though NASB could be taken in the sense of the first interpretation. “To lift up the soul” is a Hebrew idiom that means, “to will or desire something, to set one’s heart or volition on something.” (The NIV “do not be a willing party to his death.” NASB “do not desire his death”.)
The second clause provides a contrast to the first. To neglect discipline because of a lack of confidence in God’s methods, or because of the pain the child’s crying brings, or because of the parent’s laziness, or sentimentality, or whatever, is in essence to desire the child’s death. Leniency allows attitudes and behavior patterns to grow that could cause a child’s death because of his lack of discipline and spiritual controls. Far better should the child cry under loving and healthy correction than the parents should cry under the bitter fruit of a failure to discipline (cf. Prov. 23:13-14).
(3) Ephesians 6:4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
“Discipline” refers broadly to the whole process of training, but particularly in the form of discipline. “Instruction” is a word which literally means to put sense in the mind. It refers to encouragement by words and assurances if that is needed or to admonishment if that is needed.
(4) Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
In this one little verse there is a command to obey, “train up,” and a promise to claim, “and when he is old (mature) he will not depart from it.” In this we have both God’s charge and His promise to every parent. Parents need to know what this means and believe and trust in its methods. The issue, of course, is knowing what the verse says and fulfilling the command. May I suggest that this verse means far more than what immediately meets the eye and nothing at all of what most think. The verse is not talking about mere forced parental conformity. It is not saying, send your children to Sunday school or have them memorize the Ten Commandments and everything will work out. It goes much deeper than that.
The word “train” is the Hebrew chanak which, according to its usage in ancient times, had four important ideas that are instructive for understanding and illustrating God’s training corral. Obviously, the context must determine how chanak is being used in any given context, but the various uses do provide some striking suggestions and illustrations of what is involved in training.
First, chanak could mean “to dedicate.” It was used four other times in the Old Testament and in each case the primary idea is to inaugurate something through a service of dedication which usually involved sacrifice (Deut. 20:5 [twice], 1 Kings 8:63; and 2 Chron. 7:5). More will be said on this below under the aspect of a parent’s dedication to raising children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Second, another idea in chanak is “to throttle, make narrow, or discipline.” In Arabic, a sister language, this word was used of a rope in a horse’s mouth, like a bit in a bridal to make the animal submissive and bring it under control. This certainly illustrates how training includes the use of discipline, the application of external controls, in order to bring a child under control, which ultimately means God’s control.
Third, another idea in chanak is of that of “instruction.” How does it get this meaning? In its most fundamental meaning it meant “to initiate, start,” or “introduce someone to something or to someone.”8 From that it came to have the idea of “to train” because in instruction, we are introducing our children to God and to His Word and starting them in God’s path or way of life.
Fourth, another idea in chanak is to “initiate, create an appetite.” This source was from outside the Old Testament, but at least by way of illustration it has application to the process of training.9 The word actually meant, “palate, roof of the mouth.” Related to the basic idea of initiation was its later use in Arabic of the action of a midwife who would rub the palate of a newborn with olive oil or the oil of crushed dates in order to give a taste, to create an appetite and get the baby to suckle. Certainly, one of the necessary ingredients in training children is that of giving children a taste of the reality of God by the model or example of the parent. We can’t expect our children to be real with God if we are phonies. They pick up on our attitudes and patterns whether we like it or not. What we are is vital, indeed, even determinative to what they become.
4 Roy Lessin, How to be Parents of Happy and Obedient Children, Omega Publications, Medford, OR, 1978, p. 81, quoting Charles R. Swindoll in, You and Your Child.
5 Lessin, pp. 55-56.
6 Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, R. Laird Harris, editor, Gleason L. Archer and Jr. Bruce K. Waltke, associate editors, Vol. I, Moody Press, Chicago, 1980, p. 387.
7 Derek Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary, The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Tyndale Press, London, 1964, p. 134.
8 Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, Vol. I, p. 301.
9 A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, editors, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1907, p.335.
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April 18, 2006
