"Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17, NIV).
"A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." --famous proverb
Dietrich Bonhoeffer equated belief and obedience: "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes." They go hand in hand and one must not divorce faith and faithfulness either, and the result, which is obedience (cf. Heb. 3:1-19). Unbelievers are called "sons of disobedience" in Eph. 2:2. Christians are to be eager to live for the Lord and to live a life pleasing to Him. Discipleship implies obedience because we are following on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3) in His steps. Good deeds are the fruit of salvation, not the means; if there is no fruit our salvation is suspect.
And we are not given a list of dos and don'ts and the Bible isn't a handbook on rules or catalog of regulations, but a key to personally know the Lord. Yes, the goal is not to obey but this is a byproduct of our love, which is expressed in obedience (to love Him is to obey His commandments). The believer yearns to obey, even if he falls short of his ideal. The second part of the Great Commission is to teach us to obey, and it doesn't just stipulate that we obey one rule or what to obey, but the principle of obedience and to obey all things commanded by Christ.
The principle of obedience per se is to be taught, not just to authorities and the rules of the Lord (cf. Jer. 5:4; 8:7; Micah 4:12) but to the will of God. There is no such thing as disobedient believers per Bonhoeffer--they can disobey, but all believers have surrendered to the lordship of Christ (cf. Rom. 12:1) and have obeyed the gospel, to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:39). God's commands are not burdensome, for His yoke is easy (cf. Matt. 11:29) and He grants us the strength to obey (cf. Phil. 2:13).
But we are not just goody-goodies who appear as shallow seeking the approbation of men, but those people who know the Lord, doing the work of the Lord from the heart--for we are a people "eager to do good works" (cf. Titus 2:14). We increase in the knowledge of the Lord by applying what we know in good works as Col. 1:10, NIV, says, "[B]earing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." Note that 2 Pet. 3:18 commands us to grow in the knowledge of our Lord as we increase in grace. To know Him is to love Him! We can only boast if we know Him (cf. Jer. 9:24).
It is said that Christ didn't come to make bad men good, but dead men alive! We are raised from the dead when we get saved, for Christ is still in the resurrection business. Obedience is for our own good, for God knows what's best for us and the way to life as we are called to trust in His will. We must realize that the Pharisees were externalists, going through the motions and memorizing the Dance of the Pious, but had no inward reality! As it says in 1 Sam. 15:22, "to obey is better than sacrifice," it follows that we must have an inward reality and not just be paying lip service (cf. Jer. 12:2). The Pharisees were experts at the Law of Moses and were legalists' thinking that obedience without a right heart could please God (cf. Matt. 15:8).
What really pleases God is faith and we cannot please Him without it (cf. Heb. 11:6), and expressing this faith through love is all that counts (cf. Gal. 5:6), as Mother Teresa of Calcutta has said, "True holiness consists in doing the will of God with a smile." Our ultimate goal is to have a fulfilling, loving relationship with our Lord, and this is done by knowing Him and applying what we know. Richard of Chichester's prayer was "to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love him more dearly, and to follow him more nearly.
All knowledge is merely a byproduct and not the end itself in our life, it is merely a means to an end of knowing Him, and we don't want our knowledge to be second-hand knowledge only but from our own experience. It doesn't just stop at head knowledge but is to be applied to our lives (cf. Job 5:27).
Many believers pride themselves on being right and have separated from fellow Christians over nonessential issues; they are content just to be doctrinally correct and impeccable, even splitting hairs, or worse yet to be politically correct, saying "my way or the highway." We must learn to defend the truth and stand up for the truth, but remember that our relationships are more important than our stands; at our judgment, God will not ask us if we were a Democrat or Republican, for instance, or a Calvinist or Arminian, but whether we loved our opponents.
However, we are never called to be argumentative, contentious, divisive, or judgmental, but to build bridges not make walls in relationships. It is said that we must not be disagreeable, but learn to agree to disagree, and the Bible says that God's servants must not be quarrelsome (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24) or argue over the meaning of words (cf. 1 Tim. 6:4). "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching they are conceited and understand nothing..." (1 Tim. 6:3-4, NIV).
In sum, we must never lose focus on the twin goals of our faith: orthodoxy and orthopraxy, or to believe right and live right as its consequence; in other words, making disciples doesn't just mean bringing people about to our way of thinking or our school of thought, but turning our creeds into deeds and living it out as a witness to the world. Soli Deo Gloria!
"A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." --famous proverb
Dietrich Bonhoeffer equated belief and obedience: "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes." They go hand in hand and one must not divorce faith and faithfulness either, and the result, which is obedience (cf. Heb. 3:1-19). Unbelievers are called "sons of disobedience" in Eph. 2:2. Christians are to be eager to live for the Lord and to live a life pleasing to Him. Discipleship implies obedience because we are following on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3) in His steps. Good deeds are the fruit of salvation, not the means; if there is no fruit our salvation is suspect.
And we are not given a list of dos and don'ts and the Bible isn't a handbook on rules or catalog of regulations, but a key to personally know the Lord. Yes, the goal is not to obey but this is a byproduct of our love, which is expressed in obedience (to love Him is to obey His commandments). The believer yearns to obey, even if he falls short of his ideal. The second part of the Great Commission is to teach us to obey, and it doesn't just stipulate that we obey one rule or what to obey, but the principle of obedience and to obey all things commanded by Christ.
The principle of obedience per se is to be taught, not just to authorities and the rules of the Lord (cf. Jer. 5:4; 8:7; Micah 4:12) but to the will of God. There is no such thing as disobedient believers per Bonhoeffer--they can disobey, but all believers have surrendered to the lordship of Christ (cf. Rom. 12:1) and have obeyed the gospel, to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:39). God's commands are not burdensome, for His yoke is easy (cf. Matt. 11:29) and He grants us the strength to obey (cf. Phil. 2:13).
But we are not just goody-goodies who appear as shallow seeking the approbation of men, but those people who know the Lord, doing the work of the Lord from the heart--for we are a people "eager to do good works" (cf. Titus 2:14). We increase in the knowledge of the Lord by applying what we know in good works as Col. 1:10, NIV, says, "[B]earing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." Note that 2 Pet. 3:18 commands us to grow in the knowledge of our Lord as we increase in grace. To know Him is to love Him! We can only boast if we know Him (cf. Jer. 9:24).
It is said that Christ didn't come to make bad men good, but dead men alive! We are raised from the dead when we get saved, for Christ is still in the resurrection business. Obedience is for our own good, for God knows what's best for us and the way to life as we are called to trust in His will. We must realize that the Pharisees were externalists, going through the motions and memorizing the Dance of the Pious, but had no inward reality! As it says in 1 Sam. 15:22, "to obey is better than sacrifice," it follows that we must have an inward reality and not just be paying lip service (cf. Jer. 12:2). The Pharisees were experts at the Law of Moses and were legalists' thinking that obedience without a right heart could please God (cf. Matt. 15:8).
What really pleases God is faith and we cannot please Him without it (cf. Heb. 11:6), and expressing this faith through love is all that counts (cf. Gal. 5:6), as Mother Teresa of Calcutta has said, "True holiness consists in doing the will of God with a smile." Our ultimate goal is to have a fulfilling, loving relationship with our Lord, and this is done by knowing Him and applying what we know. Richard of Chichester's prayer was "to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love him more dearly, and to follow him more nearly.
All knowledge is merely a byproduct and not the end itself in our life, it is merely a means to an end of knowing Him, and we don't want our knowledge to be second-hand knowledge only but from our own experience. It doesn't just stop at head knowledge but is to be applied to our lives (cf. Job 5:27).
Many believers pride themselves on being right and have separated from fellow Christians over nonessential issues; they are content just to be doctrinally correct and impeccable, even splitting hairs, or worse yet to be politically correct, saying "my way or the highway." We must learn to defend the truth and stand up for the truth, but remember that our relationships are more important than our stands; at our judgment, God will not ask us if we were a Democrat or Republican, for instance, or a Calvinist or Arminian, but whether we loved our opponents.
However, we are never called to be argumentative, contentious, divisive, or judgmental, but to build bridges not make walls in relationships. It is said that we must not be disagreeable, but learn to agree to disagree, and the Bible says that God's servants must not be quarrelsome (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24) or argue over the meaning of words (cf. 1 Tim. 6:4). "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching they are conceited and understand nothing..." (1 Tim. 6:3-4, NIV).
In sum, we must never lose focus on the twin goals of our faith: orthodoxy and orthopraxy, or to believe right and live right as its consequence; in other words, making disciples doesn't just mean bringing people about to our way of thinking or our school of thought, but turning our creeds into deeds and living it out as a witness to the world. Soli Deo Gloria!
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