To Obey or Disobey ... That Is the Question!

Ever since Eve took that fateful bite of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, humanity (and that means YOU and ME) have had a thing for disobedience. Given the choice to obey authority or rebel against it, our default setting is to do the former. Any one who has ever raised children (or even worked with preschoolers in any context) know that you don't have to train a child to disobey. That comes naturally. Rather, you have to spend a lot of time and effort (and pain and anguish) to help children understand the need to listen and obey.

In this morning's daily reading from the J.I. Packer Collection, Packer discusses the need (for our own good! See Deuteronomy 6:23-25) to obey God. As he points out, "the Bible displays God as one who commands and humans as required to practice obedience" (see Genesis 2:16-17; Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 29:29; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Mark 10:17-19; John 14:15; 15:14; 1 John 5:3). He goes on to write the following:

"Little stress is laid these days, even in the church, let alone in our supposedly Christian culture, on the reality and authority of God's commands. But the fundamental dimension of being Christian people guided by God is that we labor to learn his commandments as he has revealed them and to live by them in faithful obedience just as consistently as we possibly can. When, one day, we have to give an account of ourselves to God, it will be important for us to be able to say with truth that we sought to keep all his commandments throughout our Christian lives." 

Right on J.I.! Let's passionately purse the keeping of God's commands ... all by HIS grace and for HIS glory!

Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj