Obedience is L-O-V-E

I want to start this conversation we are about to have on obedience in a slightly different place than you are probably used to hearing when obedience is the subject: 

You are called for a purpose and such a time as this. 

God has spoken words over your life that are beyond your wildest dreams. 

That’s the awesome part. 

The difficult part is that the purpose will cost you. 

It costs your obedience. 

Before the Obedience

In our anchor verse, we join Saul when Samuel is berating Saul for not listening to God’s instructions. For context, Samuel had given Saul clear instructions from God to kill the Amalekites and leave nothing at all. Saul made a different call. Before we look at Saul’s life at this point, let’s go back a few paces to see what God had said about Saul-- the call on his life if you will. In 1 Samuel 10:1, Samuel anointed Saul as the very first king of Israel with these powerful, prophetic words: “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance.” Even before Saul messed it all up five chapters later, there was a word spoken over his life. When we get enticed by the allure of doing what we want and not what God wants (obedience), we tell ourselves why we disobeyed. We very rarely look at what we will forfeit in disobedience: the things that God has spoken over our lives. You have probably heard these words God speak over us as his “calling” on our lives. This is the real cost of disobedience--getting out of alignment with God’s purpose. The enemy loves distracting us with the allure of the seemingly good things living our way will provide for us. Unfortunately, he does this to keep us from seeing what we are going to lose - in Saul’s case, it was the whole kingdom. So I ask you this, “is disobeying God’s words (the bible) more important to you than the inheritance He has for you?”. Let’s keep talking while you think about that question.

Obedience Requires Attention

I have a silly habit where my mind easily drifts when I am working inside on a beautiful day. I will still do my work, but my attention to detail is not focused as it should be. Work that should take me half an hour, will ultimately take me about twice as much to complete. How I justify this waste of time  in my head usually sounds like: "Oh, but doing work in this relaxed way is surely better than rigidly paying attention. The work product will still be great." When I read what Samuel asked Saul to do, and then I read what Saul did, clearly, Saul was not paying attention. He justified it in a great way, though: the plunder was too good to waste. It will be better if God gets it. Yet, that was not God's instruction. Isn't that the human struggle with obedience? I do that sometimes. God tells me to do something such as praying with someone, but I fool myself like Saul. I decide that praying with that person could make them feel awkward, so I will instead go in my prayer closet and spend time praying for them. Praying for someone is always a good thing, but it is not what God asked me to do. When Saul decided not to obey the details of God's words, Samuel shared with him a new word: "because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king." Again, just five chapters prior, he had been anointed as king. His disobedience cost him his title. So I ask you this (again), "is disobeying God's words (the bible) more important to you than the inheritance He has for you?" I hope you continue thinking about this question as I bring us to the end of this conversation.

Obedience is about Love

I would be remiss if I left off this conversation on obedience at just those two points above. Too often, we do that. We reduce obedience to a transaction, a quid pro quo. If I obey, then God will do something for me. Yet that's not what Jesus said. Obedience is vital in our Christian walk. As I have tried to illustrate, there is often a cost to accessing God's promise, but it is more than that. It is more than a means to an end. Obedience shows a heart that is in love with Jesus. In John 14:23, Jesus says, "All who love me will do what I say." This is where Saul missed the mark; he was more focused on doing for God than loving God, so much that all his doing was a response to what God had said, not an outworking of his love for Him. That might be a confusing sentence, so let me break it down for you. Doing things for God, no matter how big and amazing those things may be, will always be less than doing what God says. This is because doing what He says is how we get to show we love Him. That is God's love language, obedience.

It is fashionable to ask this question: “what is your love language?” Many of us can rattle off our top five, and recite the reasons why we want to be loved in that way by our family and friends within this context. Some people might say we have come to expect reciprocal love in this way. If you deserve to be loved in the way you receive love, how much more does our God who loved us first deserve? God is a good father. He loves us so much. The Bible says, “We love him because He first loved us.” His love is so immense, He sent His only son to die for our sins. What greater love is there than this? I submit that a love this great, deserves us loving Him back according to his love language: obedience.