Obedience

“In the beginning…” God gave some quite simple commands to His creation – “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it...” (Genesis 1:28) And, “...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

However, it didn't take long for humanity to disregard His words. Soon enough they did what “seemed right in their own eyes,” which became a common theme for the people during… well, all of us! From Adam and Eve's kids to our own kids, obedience has been a struggle. Why? Consider every sin you can remember committing, did you know better? If so, why did you do it? Because of sin! The deceiver worms his way into our minds with “compelling reasons” to do what we want to – our will, not His be done.

Paul describes this in Romans 7:19, 23-24, “For the good that I [want] to do, I do not do; but the evil I [do not want] to do, that I practice... But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

James also sheds some light on how this work in James 1:14-15, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

The Bible is filled with situations where people lived these verses out in their decisions – they were enticed by their own desires, they engaged in a battle in their mind that led them away from doing the will of God. One place, in particular, is a story about a prophet who shared with Jeroboam the consequences of dividing the kingdom. The prophet left that region to encounter another prophet who closely resembles Satan in the Garden of Eden. That false prophet lured the other one into a situation that ended up costing him his life. (1 Kings 13:11-34).

At the end of the day, we must obey the words of God. Sounds easier than it is, but ponder these words from 2 Corinthians 10:5, “[we should be] casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”