By Pr Isaiah White
The world would stand still if obedient and submissive agents decided to disobey in one second. In fact, every relationship is dependent on the intention of one party to be obedient.
I wish I could extend and prove how important obedience is for both the functionality and existence of our world but let me say that obedience is a need. Obedience begins in acknowledgement of the right authority and the ability to tell the right from the wrong regardless of how good or bad it is.
For us to understand what I am saying, let me give you an example from History: “Adolf Eichmann was executed in 1962 for his part in organizing the Holocaust, in which six million Jewish people, as well as gipsies, communists and trade unionists, were transported to death camps and murdered in Nazi Germany and surrounding countries under Nazi control.
Eichmann was a logistical genius whose part in the Holocaust was the planning of the efficient collection, transportation and extermination of those to be killed. At his trial in 1961, Eichmann expressed surprise at being hated by Jewish people, saying that he had merely obeyed orders, and surely obeying orders could only be a good thing.
In his jail diary, Eichmann wrote ‘The orders were, for me, the highest thing in my life and I had to obey them without question’ (extract quoted in The Guardian, 12 August, 1999, p. 13).” (McLeod, S. A. {2007, Oct 24}. Obedience to Authority. Simply Psychology: https://www.simplypsychology. org/obedience.html).
Just because you are a law-abiding citizen doesn’t mean you are obedient to God. Eichmann thought he was obedient but in the real sense, he was conforming to a wrong will and a bad-evil law. Obedience can always be exhibited in defiance, to what is wrong for its wrongness sake. I will briefly explain this later
Sociology and obedience
Our sociology is a business of human behaviour and relations based on how obedient we are to each other. As children, we are told to obey our parents (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-3) and as workers, we are asked to obey our masters (Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22).
As spouses we are asked to obey our spouses (Ephesians 5:21, 22) as citizens we are asked to obey the government (Romans 13:1-5; Hebrews 13:17) and as religious people, we are asked to obey God (Exodus 19:5; Luke 11:28).
It is on obedience that our sociology is built. A fracture in the intention and will to obey leads to a dysfunctional sociology. Due to survival instincts, every society has devised means to ensure, obedience exists and these means are punishments for the disobedient (Deuteronomy 28: 16-68) and rewards for the obedient (Deuteronomy 28:115).
Terror influences obedience in those who by intent are disobedient. People obey the law of thou shalt not commit adultery because they are terrified of being caught (John 8:1-8) and punished or even contracting curable and incurable diseases.
When Apostle Paul encouraged obedience to civil authorities, he reminded us that they bear not the sword for nothing (Romans 13:4). The idea of prisons and hospitals (specific ailments) are essentially in place to hold people obedient through the means of fear and favour.
Christian obedience
Christian obedience shouldn’t be subject to the reality of punishment and the possibility of rewards. Christian obedience should be independent of both, and interest itself in the Being (God) as the object of their obedience regardless of what that being does or doesn’t.
It is a pity when sinners convert and obey God to avoid Hell and gain Heaven. How then will such sinners relate with the same God when they get to Heaven while hell is no more? Christian obedience has two characteristics: 1 – It is directed to God as a being minus his providential and punishment abilities and acts and 2 – it is obedience without fear or favour.
Obeying God for who He is
To the Apostles when the authorities instituted by God and objects of their obedience was right, they decided not to obey that entity but God Himself (Act 5:29). The seriousness of this event communicates that God matters more than even, what we ‘know’ He has said.
Christian obedience is directed to a Being and not to a concept. Finally, since we obey God, not what He does or doesn’t, our allegiance cannot be shifted circumstantially.
In Daniel 3:15-18 the three Christian youth made it clear to the heathen King that their God would save them from the furnace but added on a very important aspect, that even if God didn’t save them, they would still obey His principle of thou shalt not worship any other god/idol.
That is what I call obeying God without fear or favour. They did not obey exclusively based on His salvation but were willing to obey even in their destruction.
