Learning To Obey
Bob Eddy
The writer of the Hebrew letter wrote, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him ...” (Hebrews 5:8-9)
Obedience is not a natural thing in life, nor was obedience a natural thing in the life of our Lord. Do you know what is natural in life? It is disobedience, and Jesus was no exception. He had to learn obedience through suffering. Therefore, he was made perfect through his obedience and became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
The same is true today. Our natural thing in life is to be disobedient. A couple of years after a child is born, his natural instinct is to disobey. He goes through those “Terrible Twos, Traumatic Threes, and Ferocious Fours.” His most used word is, “No!”
As he grows older, it does not get much better. When a child reaches the teenage years, parents struggle with his or her disobedience. A teenage girl said to her mother, “Don’t talk to me, talk to my hand.” Her mother replied, “I’ll talk to you with both hands.”
Even today, when someone asks us to do something, our normal reaction is to say, “No!” However, if it is a good thing, we should discipline ourselves to say, “Yes!”
God wants us to learn obedience. Obedience must become a way of life. It became the way of life of our Lord, for he said, “I come to do thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:9).
Salvation is promised to those who obey the will of God. Damnation is promised to those who disobey. Peter asked a most important question in 1 Peter 4:17: “What shall the end be to them that obey not the gospel of God?” Paul answers it in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9: “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”
Obedience is the right thing to do. It does not come naturally; we must learn it. –4898 Oroszy Ave., Lorain, OH 44055.