Disobedience

 

Obeying God is in our best interest.

  • Deuteronomy 10:12-13 HCSB  "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul?  13  Keep the LORD's commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good.
  • Deuteronomy 30:15-16 HCSB  See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.  16  For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

 

God’s precepts were given out of His grace, as a way of teaching us what holiness and right living looks like. Though our sin nature keeps us from fulfilling them perfectly, we should still strive to emulate Yawheh’s holiness through the power of His Spirit.

  • Romans 5:20-21 HCSB  The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more,  21  so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
  • John 15:4-5 HCSB  Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.  5  "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.

 

Obedience can keep us from disease.

  • Exodus 15:26 HCSB  He said, "If you will carefully obey the LORD your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illness on you I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you."

 

Obedience is the key to a successful life.

  • Joshua 1:8 HCSB  This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

 

We will be evaluated in terms of our obedience to God's commandments.

  • Matthew 5:19 HCSB  Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

 

Obedience demonstrates our true love and devotion to God. We dare not claim that we love Him if we do not obey Him.

  • John 14:15 HCSB  "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
  • John 14:23 HCSB  Jesus answered, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
  • John 15:10-11 HCSB  If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commands and remain in His love.  11  "I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
  • John 15:14 HCSB  You are My friends if you do what I command you.

 

The Holy Spirit will only be given to those who obey the Lord.

  • Acts 5:32 HCSB  We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."

 

Jesus obeyed His Father, as an example of how we should obey Him.

  • Philippians 2:5-8 HCSB  Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,  6  who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.  7  Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form,  8  He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death--even to death on a cross.
  • Hebrews 5:8-9 HCSB  Though a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.  9  After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,

 

We follow the principle of “dinah d’malkuta dinah” or “the law of the land is the law.” God advises us to obey the laws of the land.

  • Matthew 22:17-21 HCSB  Tell us, therefore, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"  18  But perceiving their malice, Jesus said, "Why are you testing Me, hypocrites?  19  Show Me the coin used for the tax." So they brought Him a denarius.  20  "Whose image and inscription is this?" He asked them.  21  "Caesar's," they said to Him. Then He said to them, "Therefore, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
  • Romans 13:1-2 HCSB  Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.  2  So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God's command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

 

Sometimes obedience to God and His law may practice civil disobedience.  

  • Exodus 1:15-21 HCSB  Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,  16  "When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it's a daughter, she may live."  17  The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.  18  So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"  19  The midwives said to Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife can get to them."  20  So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.  21  Since the midwives feared God, He gave them families.
  • Daniel 3:14-18 HCSB  Nebuchadnezzar asked them, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don't serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up?  15  Now if you're ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don't worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire--and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?"  16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, "Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to give you an answer to this question.  17  If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king.  18  But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up."
  • Joshua 2:3-6 HCSB  Then the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab and said, "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they came to investigate the entire land."  4  But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, "Yes, the men did come to me, but I didn't know where they were from.  5  At nightfall, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don't know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!"  6  But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
  • Acts 5:29 HCSB  But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than men.

 

Children are to obey and honor their parents.

  • Ephesians 6:1-3 HCSB  Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right.  2  Honor your father and mother--which is the first commandment with a promise--  3  that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land.