OBEDIENCE
“Obey” (Gk. “hupakouo”) is to listen, attend, and so to submit to.
“Obedience” (Gk. “hupakoe”)
is the fulfillment of a command, claim, or counsel – Vine’s An Expository
Dictionary of Biblical Words.
Lk.
6:46-49; Matt.
Is this what you are doing or going to do with all of God’s words?
Even the ones you haven’t kept till now, and why?
Lk.
Would
others know that you were related to Christ by the way you live (i.e.,
obedience to God/Christ)?
If so, how?
Lk.
Are you blessed/happy
because you’re listening to the word of God and obeying it?
Jn.
14:15, 23; 2 Jn. 1:6 How
does our obedience to Christ relate to our love for Christ?
Are you demonstrating your
love for Christ in this way? If so, how often?
2
Thes. 1:6-9 To whom
will God deal out retribution (punishment)?
[“know”
means to believe in, honor, or worship and, here, refers to the heathen,
idolatrous, non-God-believing Gentiles who knew about God, but never heard the
gospel – see 1 Thes. 4:5; Gal. 4:8; Rom.
[“obey” means to believe or
personally accept or trust” – see Jn.
Will God be dealing retribution out to you? Why?
Heb. 11:8 What
did Abraham do by faith when he was called by God to go to the promised land that he didn’t know?
How?
Is
this how you respond when God tells you, through the Bible, to do something/anything?
If so,
give an example of when you did this.
Rom.
Being
a slave to sin results in what?
Being
a slave to God or obeying Him will result in what?
Who
are you obeying (or a slave to)? And why?
Rom.
From where is the source of
your obedience to God’s Word, the Bible (e.g., your emotions, peer-pressure,
family, ego, blind habit, inner being or will, mere mental acceptance, etc.),
and why?
Is this the same source as that which God
tells us to have?
If not, what can you do to
change it, in order to have the right motivation?
To what were these Christians obedient?
[“that form of teaching” means the pattern
or standard of apostolic teaching, sound/accurate teaching of
God’s Word – gospel teaching – see 2 Tim.
1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1].
To what are you obedient: your
feelings and emotions, your past experiences, people’s expectations of you, what’s
popular, or to God’s Word, the Bible, and why?
Phil. 2:12, 13 When
did these believers obey God?
Should we be obedient to what we know is right only when
a spiritual leader is watching over us, and why?
Do you tend to do
things that you know you should more when a spiritual person is with you than
when you’re by yourself? Why?
Eph. 6:5-8 How were slaves to relate to their masters?
Though
not exactly the same, how do you relate to your employer, and why?
Rom.
What should we do instead?
Which are you doing, and why?
1 Pet.
[“truth” – God’s
Word, Psa. 119:160; Jn. 17:17].
What prompts you to sincerely love other Christians: their looks, their
status, their material possessions, their personality, their abilities, their
obedience to God, your obedience to God’s Word because you love God, or what?
Heb.
Why should we obey our (spiritual)
leaders?
Why should we let them do this
with joy rather than with grief?
In what ways would it be
unprofitable to us?
What has been or is your
attitude toward your spiritual leader(s), and why?
Why (vs.
1)?
What is the penalty for
resisting authority (vs. 2)?
What is God’s purpose for
rulers (vs. 4)?
Why
else should we be in subjection to governing authorities (vs. 5)?
What is your attitude toward
civil authorities, and why?
When driving, do you obey the
speed limits?
As a pedestrian, do you walk
across the street when a red light or “Do Not Walk” sign flashes?
Do you carry auto insurance? Pay your income
taxes?
If you are breaking any of these laws or any others, how do you feel
about it now that you know that you are committing a sin because you’re going
against God?
And if you are breaking any civil laws, what do you plan to do about it
now?
What are some other civil laws that Christians don’t seem to think are
wrong to break, and why?
What can we do to fix in our minds the seriousness of breaking civil
laws?
1 Pet. 2:13-15 Why should Christians submit to every human institution,
like kings/presidents, governors, etc.?
What
is your attitude toward submission to every human institution, and why?
Acts
4:1, 18-20; 5:28, 29, 32 [During
Jesus’ time, some of the religious orders/groups were also part of the civil
authority].
When it comes down to a choice of whether to obey your civil
authorities or God (if they should conflict, because the civil authorities
are over-stepping the bounds of their authority), which/who should and would
you obey, and why?
What would you have done if you were in Peter and
John’s place, and why?
Eph. 6:1; Col. 3:20 Whom should children obey? And why?
[The context of both Eph. 6 and Col. 3 is that of a Christian home, as
Paul’s writing to these two churches. A
child is to be obedient to his parents in everything, that is, everything that
does not violate any other biblical command, principle, or teaching. With
non-Christian or carnal Christian parents, the child should obey them unless
what the parents ask is opposed to the will of God – just as in the Acts
4:18-20 and
[The word “everything” like the word “all” does not always mean
“everything inclusively”, but can mean “everything in a limited sense”. For
example, in Rom.
[The phrase “in the Lord” means in the sphere in which obedience is
expected. Paul is addressing Christian
families and is not discussing the problem of Christian children with
non-Christian parents – Homer Kent’s book, Ephesians – The
Glory of the Church. Therefore,
children are to obey their parents unless the parents ask what is contrary to
God’s biblical commands, principles, or instructions – His will. There is a second consideration: when is a
son or daughter no longer a child but rather an adult? In the Jewish culture it appears to be at the
age of 20 (Num. 26:2; 32:11). In
The following passages indicate that there
may be times when a conflict of interests or commands would mean that you
would have to obey God rather than your parents. Find the principle in each of the passages:
Mark 10:29-31
Matt. 10:34-37
Luke 9:59-62
Luke
Judges
1 Kings
If either of your parents told you to lie,
steal something, not read your Bible, not pray to God, not evangelize the
spiritually lost, not talk about the Bible, not go to a Bible study group, not
get religious/spiritual, or not get trained to go into full-time Christian
work, what would you do, and why [Prov.
12:22; Eph. 4:28; (2 Tim. 3:16, 17 with Col. 3:16 and 1 Pet. 2:2); Col. 4:2;
Matt. 28:19, 20; Heb. 5:12; 10:25; Eph. 4:15; 4:11, 12]?
Or, if either of your parents told you to go
to or stay in a false teaching church/cult (e.g.,
Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic non-denominational, Mormon, Jehovah’s
Witness, etc.), what should you do, and why (2 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 16:17; Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:2-5, 11; 2 Tim. 3:5)?
1 Sam. 2:12, 16, 17, 29-31 What was
Eli’s sin?
What did this sin result in (vss. 31, 34;
1 Pet.
What
are some specific examples of “former lusts” that non-Christians are involved
in?
Are any of these things still
true of you? If so, what do
you plan to do about it/them, and how soon?
1 Pet.
3:1, 2 What are wives
commanded by God to do?
Jn.
1 Jn.
Could this be affecting
answers to your prayers?
If so, what do you plan to do
about it?
1 Jn.
5:3 What will
a person do who loves God?
And how will he view obedience
to God’s commands?
How do you view obedience to
God’s commands, and why?
The following excerpts are taken from the Discipleship
Journal, Issue 8, 1982.
In the Bible we find seven authority-submission relationships that
involve mankind:
God and man – James 4:7
Man and nature – Genesis 1:28
Husband and wife – Eph. 5:22, 23; Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1
Parents and children – Eph. 6:1; Col. 3:20
Governors and the governed – 1 Pet. 2:13, 14;
Employers and employees – Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22 – 4:1; 1 Pet. 2:18-20 (though
specifically referring to slaves, the principle holds, for today.)
Spiritual leaders and the spiritually led – Heb. 13:17
All human and angelic authorities are limited, and one way in which they
are limited is by God’s moral law, the Bible.
A father has no right to tell his children or his wife to do something
morally wrong, that the Bible says is wrong. That is beyond the limits of his
authority. This is true as well for an
employer, a government official, or a spiritual leader.
Authorities can also have defined, agreed-upon limits, such as the job
description for your work/employment, which indicates what responsibilities and
what decision-making authority you have, and where
these begin and end.
For example, in the Navigator Christian organization they have what are
known as Navigator homes, in which Navigator staff members have young single
adults living with them for the purpose of training. When a Navigator married couple had several
young men living in their home, the married couple had to work out a
refrigerator use policy. Otherwise, all
the leftovers the wife was counting on for future meals would be gone. So they decided that anything on the second
shelf was okay for these young men to eat, but everything else was off limits
to them.
The limits of authority in a given relationship can change with
time. In raising children, you must keep
in constant communication with them because the limits of your authority are always
changing. When the children are small,
you are autocratic. You don’t sit down
with them and take a vote on whether they should play in the street. But later they can make more and more
decisions themselves, and you need to check with them at times to be sure
you’ve communicated what the rules are at this particular stage.
Authorities are also limited by other authorities. If a woman’s husband told her to drive 70 mph
in a 65 mph zone, the wife has the right to decline because the government, and
not her husband, has authority for setting speed limits. The government’s authority limited the
husband’s authority in that situation.
On the other hand, of course, the government does not have the right to
preempt the legitimate authority which the man has in his family as a husband
and father.
The trouble comes when these limits are violated.
Submission simply means surrendering to the will or control of another,
and this sometimes comes only after resistance or conflict. It doesn’t always come easily. If it were totally easy, what virtue would
there be in submitting?
We must first of all surrender to the will of God. The problem with human beings is not our lack
of information, but our rebellion. We
substitute one authority with another – namely, our own in the place of
God’s. We must therefore surrender –
yielding and giving way to God’s will.
God expects this kind of submission in the other relationships as well. Spiritual followers are to surrender to
spiritual leaders.
Our authority must be exercised in a biblical way. Spiritual leaders are to serve as examples to
the flock – 1 Pet. 5:3; Husbands to wives – Col. 3:19; Fathers to children –
Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21; Governors to those governed – 2 Sam. 23:3; Employers to
employees – Eph. 6:9.
Biblical authority must
be exercised even though it is challenged – and it will be challenged. Anyone with authority will at some point be
challenged. Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul’s
authority were all challenged by various people. All leaders are challenged. But leaders must exercise the authority God
has biblically given them in spite of these challenges.