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Are there benefits to obedience to God? What about disobedience? Does it really matter whether I obey God or not?
As a theme, obedience to God runs right throughout the Bible, bot Testaments. This gives us an idea of how important obedience actually is.
Ex 23:21-22 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. (22) But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Obedience to God puts us on His side, and our enemies become His enemies.
John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (24) He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."
Obedience to God's commandments is proof of our love for God; disobedience is evidence that a person doesn't love God.
1 Pet 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, (2) elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
We have been called to obedience.
Deut 13:4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
Deut 27:10 Therefore you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God, and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.
Obedience is not an optional extra; it is a command.
Heb 5:9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
Obedience is a primary characteristic of those who have received eternal salvation.
1 Sam 15:22 Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams."
Obedience is far more important to God than sacrifice.
Ex 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
Those who are obedient are God's special treasure.
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Obedience leads to righteousness, and we becomes slaves of God as opposed to slaves of sin and Satan.
Deut 28:1-2 Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. (2) And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
Obedience puts us in a place of blessing.
Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men."
If it comes down to a choice between obeying God's commands or the expectations of humans, God should always come first.
2 Thess 3:14-15 And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. (15) Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Paul says not to keep company with disobedient Christians; however, we are not to treat them like enemies.
Christian discipline always aims to restore and not to punish.
Rom 2:8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath,
2 Thess 1:7-8 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, (8) in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The judgment of God is the ultimate fate of those who refuse to obey Him.
If you like these Topical Bible Studies, don't forget to check out our Expository Bible Studies too.