If You Don't Like the Word Obedience

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

The word “obedience” sounds harsh to some people.

They think of abusive parents, or schoolteachers with paddles, or military drill instructors.

We can be leery of obeying anyone because we are free Americans and we bow the knee to no one.  Plus, if we put ourselves under anyone’s authority, they might take advantage of us.

There is truth to all of that, but what about when it comes to obeying God?

Well…some people put obeying God into the same category.  They don’t like the word obedience, period, even when talking about God.

So today I want to put obedience into a different light.  Actually, I’m not doing it.  Jesus did it, in the Sermon on the Mount.

At the end of that famous sermon, He talked about obedience in a completely different way, by putting it into construction terms.

Now think about construction.  When you are building a building, there are certain principles you have to follow, or your building will be garbage.

The very first principle you have to keep in mind is gravity.  All construction principles revolve around gravity.  If you don’t build it right, gravity will pull it down.

The second principle is the elements, including rain and wind.  If you don’t build right, rain and wind will destroy it.  And with rain comes erosion.

The third element is going to be critters.  Whether it's termites and wood bees, rats and snakes, raccoons and bears, if you don’t build it right, other creatures are for sure going to move in and destroy it.

Now back to obedience.  When you pay a builder to build a building for you, do you want him to be strictly obedient to good construction principles? 

Of course you do.  You don’t pay your hard-earned money for someone to build poorly.  You want it right.  You want it well built.

Now back to Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.  At the end He said, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them (that’s obedience, by the way), I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock (in other words, using solid construction principles).

Then in Matthew 7:26 He said, “But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them (that’s disobedience), will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand (in other words, using bad construction principles).

If the word obedience gives you the willies, then think of it in terms of construction.  How do you want to build your life?  Do you want to build it well, with the best life-building principles?  Then build your life using God’s construction principles in the Bible.

I have found that it works.  To the degree that I do what Jesus said, I see my life being built well.  And to the degree that I see people NOT doing what Jesus said, I see their lives being built poorly, often with one dramatic calamity after another…so much drama.

So if you don’t like the word obedience, even when it comes to obeying God, try casting it in a different light.  The results will be the same, and the illustration comes from Jesus Himself.

Do what God says and your life will be built well and strong and stable and enduring.

Don’t do what God says and your life will be built using sloppy construction principles which leads to wreckage and drama and calamity and failure every time.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.