Why do you obey?

One of the realities of raising young children is that you begin to be asked a lot of “why” questions. Why do we brush our teeth? Why do we pray before we eat? Why do we have to go to bed? The benefit to this is you find yourself having to justify things you perhaps have not thought through in a long time. That is a good thing. Useless your response is to rely unthinkingly on tradition.

I found myself asking one of those fundamental questions the other day as I was confronted with a verse in Romans. Let me pose the question. Why do you obey? Obedience to God is a constant call in the life of the church. Yet, that call, if left floating alone across the pews and ears of God’s people, can be misunderstood and misused in grave ways. Let me suggest three major categories of wrong reasons to obey God.

1. To get to heaven – Thankfully, if a church is biblical to any degree this is usually dealt with fairly well. It is a clear biblical truth that there is no obedience that can earn forgiveness. However, if you are but a step away from the confessing church, this notion gains powerful momentum. The undertow of culture, with all it false religions, surges and pulsates with the man-exalting concept of salvation-earning obedience. And if the church lets its guard down for but a moment, that concept will quickly rush back into pews. The gospel means we do not obey to be saved.

2. To get God’s favor – While the church fights the concept of earned salvation, it leaves two different doors wide open for this vermin to scurry in. The first door is a kissing cousin of the previous point because it is simply earning salvation post-conversion, which is called legalism. This person obeys because he fears that if he doesn’t then he will lose his standing before God. This concept gains ground due to deficient teaching of the gospel, either intentionally or unintentionally and it only leads to fear and despair. Second, while legalism wants God’s favor for spiritual reasons, materialism wants God’s favor for physical reasons. In fact, many churches shamelessly teach this prosperity gospel, saying that God would give wonderful things to you if you only have enough faith. As if people weren’t already prone to this, materialistic idolatry wrap its tentacles around the unsuspecting heart all the tighter because of these ministries. If you are obeying in order to get God’s gifts, then your God is the gifts. The gospel means we do not obey to get God’s favor, whatever form that may take.

3. To avoid hardship – The last category is really just pragmatism. These people have enough wisdom to see that what the Bible says is true. They have watched the lives of people around them fall apart in the pursuit of unbiblical lusts. They don’t want that to happen to them, so they play it safe with God’s principles. They are faithful to one spouse, they don’t get into debt, they work hard and don’t cause problems at the job, they don’t gossip, they obey the authorities, and on and on the list goes. But why are they obeying God’s statutes? Because they know the way of the sinner is hard (Proverbs 13:15) and they are seeking a life free of difficulty. The bankruptcy of this obedience is discovered when hardship comes anyway. These people tend to get angry. They shake their fist and say that they did everything they were supposed to. They will say that they haven’t asked for all the riches and favor promised in the prosperity gospel, but at the least they shouldn’t have to suffer. What they are really saying is God owes them. This is just the idolatry of comfort in the guise of spirituality. It is the prodigal’s older brother who was angry at his Father for not getting what he felt was owed.

So why do we obey God? Romans 1:5 gives us the answer. “… through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake…”

Let’s think through the two key statements about obedience in this verse.

1. We obey because we love His Name – Above all else, Christians obey because they love God. Obedience is “for His name’s sake.” It is about His reputation and His glory. God is the most valuable person in the entire universe and Christians love this God above all else. The best good that anyone can have is God Himself. That means when God is glorified, people are blessed, helped, and satisfied. So the best thing a person could ever do for himself is to pursue the glory of God. But how? Obedience. Obedience and love are connected. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn. 14:15) Obedience is how a person can become a channel for and participant in the glory of God. If we love the God of wisdom and want to make Him known as wise, then we obey commands that the world calls foolish and let wisdom be vindicated by her children. If we love this powerful God and want to make Him known as powerful, then we obey in humility and let God overturn Satan’s plans. If we love this God who faithfully provides and want to make Him known as a faithful provider, then we obey His calls to give and sacrifice and let God meet our needs in His time and in His way. If you want to see what happens when you seek to glorify God but don’t want to obey what He says, just look to Abraham. He thought he would help God out by bringing an heir through Hagar, instead of his wife Sarah. You can see how that turned out. When we love God we obey Him, because through obedience God will show Himself glorious, which is what we love.

2. We obey because it is what faith does – The other thing this verse says about obedience is that it comes from faith. Faith is trusting in what God has said in His holy Word. God is glorified by this trust. It means we have seen and believe that God is true, faithful, powerful, holy, sovereign, compassionate, etc. When we act on that reality it is faith in action; otherwise known as obedience. This is the one thing that pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 says “without faith it is impossible to please Him…” So faith is what produces obedience because faith clings to a promise and acts upon it. Something is going to drive your decision-making. Whatever that thing is, that is what you have faith in. If you trust in money, then you are going to obey the impulses and practices that will bring the most money. If you trust in government, then you are going to be deeply involved in the political process. If you trust in God, you will obey His Word, because that is what you think is right, good, and glorious. And God is pleased in that because He is glorified by it.

The sinful heart can mess up anything, including obedience. Take another look at why you do what you do, and see if your obedience flows from loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.