“And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgement.” (John 3:36) This verse makes it perfectly clear that belief in Jesus Christ always involves obedience. One of my favorite hymns is Trust and Obey which describes how the two are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) So, when we believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and love Him because He first loved us, obedience will be our natural response. Without obedience our faith and love for God are hollow and lack meaning.
Have you ever found yourself bartering with God? “Lord, hear and answer my prayer for resolution of this crisis in my life and I’ll study the Bible every day; do or say whatever you want me to do or say; I’ll even start tithing.” If you have found yourself doing that, as I have, then you know God’s reply, “You go first!” Obedience is required of us by our Heavenly Father. Obedience doesn’t require our understanding; we do it because He said so. All we need to know is that obeying God is always in our best interest, because He alone knows what we need and what is best for us.
Jesus demonstrated putting obedience before blessing when ten lepers came to him for healing (Luke 17:11-14) “As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, crying out, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ He looked at them and said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priest.’ As they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.” Instead of healing them immediately, He simply told them to go and show themselves to the priest and it was when they obeyed and were on their way to the priests that they were healed. Their faith was demonstrated in their act of obedience and they were greatly blessed as a result.
We can’t obey God if we aren’t paying attention to Him. We can receive His instructions through carefully and regularly reading His word; paying close attention to the prompting of the Holy Spirit within us; or even through the wise council of other Christians. However we receive His command, it is our duty as His children to obey.