For the majority of my life, I’ve had an aversion to the idea of obedience. Maybe I’m a bit of a rebel. Maybe I’ve always liked the romantic idea of being the unique outsider. Or maybe I was just more impacted by Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” poem than I ever realized. But at the end of the day… I’ve definitely allowed the world’s idea of “individuality” and the need for “finding one’s own path” to color my decisions to a degree I never realized. But as I’ve grown up and matured (as much as a man can who still giggles under his breath like a 10-year-old at thing he shouldn’t) that I had the concept of obedience to God wrong the whole time… and I hope now to rectify that here.
So I want to address it in three parts…
- Why the need for obedience?
- What does obedience actually mean?
- How can obedience and individuality not collide?
Part 1: Why Obedience?
Being obedient sucks. I want to “do me.” I want to follow MY own whims, follow MY own hear, I want to do what makes ME happy, so I can become MY own man. Said another way, I want to please ME. Problem is… that’s all about me. But my “self” and my life experience is singular, small, finite and limited. I don’t know (yet) what is right or wrong, good or bad, or even beneficial or detrimental. And even if I think I am, I have to admit I’m not fully capable of understanding the complexity of the consquences of my actions… until after the fact, of course.
The reality is that if we aren’t given direction (or choose not to follow the ones we are given), we will make up our own. And those direction will almost always tend toward self-serving. We will choose comfort over growth, self over service, control over surrender, more for me over more for others. And it’s not because we’re bad… we just don’t learn (until it’s too late, often) that there’s no pot of gold at the end of those rainbows, no finish line in those marathons, no fish to catch in those lakes… and so we end up struggling to find what we lack.
The thing is though… (whether you believe in God or the Bible) that the Bible is a book full of wisdom from thousands of years and hundreds of generations of men and women who HAVE lived, tried, succeeded, failed, and ultimately learned: What to do, what not to do, what matters, what doesn’t, and everything in between.
Now, here’s the kicker:
All the Bible can offer on the surface is information. And learning information (even deeply learning it) is not the same as undertstanding it. Read that again… You can conceptually “know” something but lack having a true “understanding” of it. Having a knowledge- or wisdom-based understanding of something can ONLY come from experiential learning. Said another way… you can only understand certain things by living them. THIS is the reason taht being obedient to what the Bible teaches is so crucial.
Let me give you an example that will make this more practical:
- You can explain to someone how to play football and they might “get it”
(feel free to insert the sport/activity that you’re most deeply involved in for greatest effect) - But then you take them to the watch it played live and they will understand more.
- Ask them to work alongside those that play, and now that understanding grows deeper.
- Ask them to play? Now they’re embedded in the details.
- Ask them to do this for years on end, and to achieve a level of expertise… and they are transformed by it.
Only by active experience can they fully, deeply, truly “understand” it in such a way that their very being is transformed by it.
This is what makes the Bible such an exceptoinal book. It doesn’t just give you the information, it encourages you to try it on for size. To not only know it, but to become it. But it can only do so if you play your part in it as well
Part 2: What Does Obedience Mean?
In short, obedience means being disciplined. More specifically, it means having an intentional approach to choosing “right” over “wrong” no matter the immediate cost. It means choosing “good” over “bad,” “hlepful” over “harmful,” “serving” over “selfinshness,” and a host of other opposites… and with a focus on long-term gain vs. short term benefit. And while there are often VERY grey areas between them, with time these grey areas get more and more clear as time goes on.
Part 3: Obedience and Individuality
The B.I.B.L.E. never ceases to amaze me. And the biggest eason is becuase of how it is able to speak not directly about all truths… but to truth itself ast the highest, most influential, logical elvel, without having to address the minutia directly.
The beauty is that when applied appropriately it becomes fluid enough and malleable enough to be applied (uniquely) to all individual circumstances and the unique individuals confronting them; subtly flexing and becoming so nuanced as to fit into the tiniest cracks of the situation, but all without ever compromising its own integrity of ultimate meaning.
All of that is to say… while the Bible might tell me its better to serve others and love others, that may apply in almost infinite variations based on the situations, circumstances and characters involved… but it always means to do things with the other’s interests before your own. In a “very close to home” example. The Bible asks me to memorize it, to keep it’s truths written in my heart… but I’m famously bad at memorizing. So, is my incapacity a failure? Or is it equally a success if I read, live and capture the concepts in my heart? That I now enough that a quick Google search can identify the verse I was roughly remembering? I see no reason why not. The truth may flex with the need, but it’s never altered.
What the Bible doesn’t tell me… is how to dress, who to spend time with, how to spend my time, what types of hobbies are acceptable, what music to listen to, what job to have, what is funny and what’s not… but if you are obedient to what the Bible asks of you… it will influence all the above and/or how you use them for good.
BONUS: Part 4: The Depths of Obedience
One reality to be contended with is that those who’ve read the Bible (or read it especially deeply) will note that while it asks you to be obedient to certain things, to act in certain ways, and to follow certain rules… sometimes the wording isn’t ALL that clear. Peter Enss does an exceptional job in his book “How The Bible Really Works” of highlighting these grey areas left by the Bible… but then does an equally masterful job of explaining how they are intentionally that way to invite wisdom into the conversation. I would argue THAT actually is the role of obedience itself; not to offer learnable answers directly, but to offer a framework in which (when lived) can offer experiential wisdom. And with that level of wisdom, comes a level of discernment which allow the initiated (the obedient) to engage with the text of the Bible in a first-hand, profoundly rooted way.
I’m left with the image of a parent teaching their kids about any number of things. They tell them things to teach them. They show them the experiences of others to ingrain the knowledge. But not until they have the experiences of living life while utilizing that knowledge (or not utilizing that knowledge) will that knowledge crystalize in them, creating WHO they are.
And in that way, the Bibile is unrivaled as a teaching tool… able to teach lifelong lessons, valide for all people, throughout all time, in only a few thousand pages. The question is, are you ready to do your part in it in order to learn the most valuable lessons it has to teach you?
TL;DR: Obedience is not a concept used to control you, or to quell your sense of self or individuality. Obedience is meant to develop you; to push you beyond the limits you inevitably will find in yourself, to help you walk in the shoes of God and, therefore, better understand the perspectives, motivations and heart of God. Obedience is meant to transform you… for your own benefit.