How does obedience unlock our relationship with God?
Discussion question for November 13, 2009.
There can be several motives for obedience. What are some of the promises of God that are conditioned on obedience? How does that affect our relationship with Him? How can we know His commandments that we need to obey? What does a mature relationship with God look and feel like?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
Obedience is the evidence of relationship. In 1 John 2:3-4 it says that we know that we know Him because we keep His commandments. Otherwise, we are fooling ourselves. It goes on to say that the commandments we need to obey are those that are according to His will. In other words, if it part of God’s character and likeness, then we are to obey it.
Relationship requires that there is communication and respect for authority. Our communication comes from God through insight and inspiration, through His Word or any other way He chooses to speak with us. Our respect for His authority is proven by our obedience to what He wants. Our example is Jesus during His ministry, where He (as a man) was always aware of God’s will and agreed with it. This is taught in John 5:19-20. His obedience to the Father was for anything He saw or heard.
We can know the will of God through the renewing of our mind, as stated in Romans 12:2. First, we are obedient to His will (surrender), and then He reveals more of His will. It’s like a spiral staircase, and we can climb to new levels of understanding and relationship.
The motives of obedience are either love or self-seeking. Self-seeking means that I obey because of what it will do for me. I hold tightly to my identity and do things that I believe will benefit that identity. The motive of love comes first with surrender of self, and the surrender must be complete. I die to myself (identity) and receive a new identity that is joined with God (us). From that point forward, my relationship grows in Him as I consider and choose according to what is best for Us.
Oswald Chambers says that we learn once we obey. Obedience is the act (verb) of faith and surrender is the attitude of it. To improve our relationship with God means that we are being obedient out of love. Then we become more and more like Christ – that progressive sanctification which will be completed with glorification once we receive our resurrected bodies.