“If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people…” Exodus 19:5

Defined as hearing or hearkening to a higher authority, obedience means a lot in Christianity. Among others, it shows that one acknowledges God’s authority and willingly surrenders to Him. Therefore, obedience is not just the testimony of a Christian’s submission to his/her creator or a mere demonstration of his/her faith; obedience is also act of worship and token of love.

How indeed can we truthfully say that we love God if we find it difficult to act on his word? Sometimes, the way we behave before God’s instructions is as if, in our human understanding, there is any special benefit God takes from our obeying him. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves: the unique beneficiaries of obedience to God are the obedient Christians as their obedience opens God’s treasure, favor and blessing to them; likewise, what harm does their disobedience do to God? None!

Our disobedience neither impoverishes God nor changes his nature. It neither reduces his majestic glory nor stains it in any way at all; if anything, human beings’ disobedience ultimately shows God’s unquestionable and unmatched power to reward sin with a just salary.

When, out of obedience to Jesus’ instruction, Peter cast his net where Jesus ordered and he caught a great number of fish, what benefits did Jesus withdraw from that? At the marriage of Cana where Jesus turned water into wine, there was no evidence that he became more God when the servants who took instructions from him hearkened to them and the miracle took place. Also, when Lot’s wife decided to turn a deaf ear to God’s order to quickly move away from Sodom and Gomorrah, her disobedience did not make God lame, deaf or dumb, etc. Instead, she it was that turned into a statue of salt. When, on his way to Damascus, Paul had his encounter with Jesus and was instructed to go to Cornelius’s house where he would be told what to do, he obeyed and he recovered his sight. Saul the king disobeyed God and brought home some sheep while God’s order was unequivocal. We all saw how God disqualified him and his family from kingship and anointed a modest but God-fearing shepherd to succeed him.

Just like the person who asks us to wash ourselves does not intend to eat us raw, our obedience to God only benefits us; it changes nothing to the lordship of God.