Learning To Obey

by Chris Simmons

The concept of obedience implies that there is a choice. We can choose to obey and we can choose to disobey. In some things, man may find it easy to choose to obey. True and complete obedience is learned when obeying isn’t easy, when the consequences are severe and when the cost is high. We read in Hebrews 5:8-9 that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, also had to learn obedience. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” If we are to follow in the steps of Jesus (I Peter 2:21; Matthew 16:24), we are going to need to learn obedience as well. For this we are accountable before God and we will answer to Him whether we’ve learned obedience as His Son did.

To learn obedience, we first need to know what we are to obey. Lest we state the obvious, we can’t learn to obey what we don’t know. Learning to obey means exercising the diligence to study and learn what God has revealed to us and then learning to handle His word accurately (II Timothy 2:15). Before we can learn to obey, we need to follow the example of Ezra the scribe who “set his heart to study the law of the Lord” (Ezra 7:10) before setting his heart to practice (obey) it and then do all he could to help others learn to obey.

Learning to obey means we need to learn to obey at all times. It’s much easier to learn to obey when surrounded by the spiritually strong. I truly learn obedience when I face the temptations of Satan alone as Jesus did (Matthew 4:1-11). Paul was thankful for the obedience of those he taught while he was with them, but he prayed earnestly for their obedience when he was apart from them. He wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” We need to learn to maximize the time with our brethren but also accept the responsibility we have to equip ourselves with the knowledge of God’s word to learn obedience when we’re alone.

Learning to obey needs to begin when we’re young. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them.’” It’s foolishness to think that we can sow to the flesh now and learn (much) later in life to begin to sow to the spirit. As long as we have the breath of life in us, we can learn to repent and obey but we need to appreciate the importance of seizing the time of our youth to begin to learn to obey. Parents carry a huge responsibility to help their children learn the obedience that will carry them through life as Timothy’s mother and grandmother did for him (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14-15). If we learn to obey early in life, we need to realize there’s no time or place to quit learning and recognize that those who are older in years must persist in the education of obedience (cf. Titus 2:1-5). We also must learn to exercise our obedience now. Learning to obey means not putting off what we can do today. Saul was taught this in Acts 22:16 when Ananias asked him pointedly, “Now why do you delay?” It’s been appropriately said that God has not commanded anything for us to do that cannot be commenced today (cf. Hebrews 3:7-15).

If we are to learn obedience, we need to learn to avoid the obvious places of temptation where Satan has the advantage. Paul wrote in Romans 13:11-14, “And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” We must learn the schemes of the devil (II Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 6:11) and learn not place ourselves in harm’s way. If we are honest in our desire to learn to obey, we recognize and realize that there are places and situations we just don’t belong.

Thus, to learn obedience, we need to learn to both flee and pursue. Paul wrote in II Timothy 2:22, “Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” He wrote in I Timothy 6:11, “But flee from these things (see verses 3-10) you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.” We’re also taught in I Corinthians 6:18 to “flee fornication” (ASV) and in I Corinthians 10:14 to “flee idolatry.” The Greek word for “flee” is phuego which simply means to run away and Thayer’s Greek Lexicon adds the graphic definition: to “seek safety by flight.” It’s interesting that phuego is noted as the origin for our English word “fugitive.” We are to be a fugitive in regards to youthful lusts, fornication, idolatry and such like and seek for our spiritual safety by our flight from situations of temptation as modeled by Joseph in Genesis 39:12. Fleeing is only half the equation and unless we learn to diligently pursue “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness,” we won’t fully learn what obedience truly means. Fleeing without pursuing will inevitably lead to one returning to the sin we are trying to avoid. Learning to obey is to learn to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

Ultimately, we learn obedience when there’s a price to be paid for it. We learn obedience when we count the cost, find out how high it is, and pay it anyway. Jesus linked our discipleship with counting the cost in Luke 14:27-29 when He said, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?” Jesus was obedient in all things but He learned the full meaning of obedience when He laid down His life for us. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7-8 that Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Obedience is fully learned when we become “faithful unto death” (Revelation 2:10). We don’t learn obedience when obedience is easy, we learn it when Satan throws everything he has at us and the cost of faithful obedience is more than we could have imagined.