Obedience is a strange word to the church going crowd these days. Most often, not even mentioned from behind the sacred pulpits of the modern day bible-believing churches.

The only time obedience is mentioned with authority, is for the congregation to obey the pastor. It is also mentioned in reference of the children to the parents.  “Col 3:20  Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.” There is nothing wrong with children obeying their parents or obeying the pastor if he is preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God. When we are born again, aren’t we converted by that incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit? He is the one directing us by the Word of God into a relationship of obedience to our Lord and Savior. “Mark 12:30  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”
 

Today obedience has been replaced with the catch-all phrase, “all you have to do is just believe.” When our Lord and Savior commanded the wind and the sea to be calm, they could have just believed, but they moved to action and were obedient to their Master. “Mar 4:41  And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Even when Jesus commanded the unclean spirits to depart, they had enough sense and fear that they moved to action and obeyed him! Why do the present day so-called Christians believe that with grace they do not have to obey?
 

With Christ having power over all nature that He created, including us, why do we believe that our faith in Him requires no action to obedience. “Jam 3:3  Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.” Are we using the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to walk in the light as He is in the light? Or do we believe all we need is just a mental ascent that requires no action to obedience? “Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.” The devils believe in taking action when God commands them to. The crowd who “just believes” will try to make their mental ascent unto obedience, but the Holy Spirit will not yoke up with one who does not have an active faith unto obedience.  According to God’s Word, He only gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him.
 

 “Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Who has bewitched or charmed us into believing that we can claim the name of Christ and not have to be obedient to His Word. Has our Lord and Savior changed the importance of His Word for our generation? Or have certain men crept in unawares with strange doctrines turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness?  “Jud 1:3  Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Who is diluting God’s Word into an acceptable lifestyle of sin and disobedience with no consequence? His Word teaches that we are to cast down imaginations and everything that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
 

Is it just a good idea for those who name the name of Christ to be obedient unto righteousness? According to God’s Word we have to go past the mental ascent and put our faith into action. “Jam 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” We need to deny “Self” and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth of obedience. In the book of  Acts, Peter says we ought to obey God rather than men. 

The Lord is coming back for the church, the called out assembly-who is obedient to His Word, not for the assembly of goats that are still living in sin and disobedience. We are not to let sin reign in our mortal body and yield ourselves to the lust of the flesh. “Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?.” This can only be done by walking in the Light as He is in the light.

 “Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
 

If you believe that Christ is your Savior and you walk contrary to His Word, then the belief that you have made is nothing more than a mental ascent. “1Jo 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
 

The issue of obedience is not important to most pastors and to the majority of so-called bible believing churches, but it is important to the one who is able to cleanse you of your sin and give you the Holy Spirit for direction to the strait gate which leadeth unto life everlasting.
 

Many will not agree with these thoughts or this simplified understanding of obedience to Jesus Christ our Lord. . . no obedience, no Holy Spirit, no strait gate, no free gift. Faith without works is dead. He is only the author of eternal salvation unto them that obey.

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;