Throughout the Bible we see that the true believers, the true Christians, are the ones who obey

One of my favorite concepts for producing editorial lessons is the use of a word or a phrase from the Bible and then draw a lesson from them.  Today, it’s a word - “obey.”  I think you’ll find this word not only interesting, but very meaningful as it relates to God and us.

First off, when we’re using this concept, it’s important that we know the actual meaning of the word as it’s used.  The dictionary defines “obey” as to mean “to comply” or “to follow a command.”  Roget’s Thesaurus shows us that it’s interchangeable with “to heed, to keep” or “to comply with.”  When we consult a concordance we find that in Hebrew it means “to pay heed” and in Greek, “to submit, as to authority” or “to conform to the rules.”

Throughout the Bible we see that the true believers, the true Christians, are the ones who play by the rules.  And, they recognize who makes the rules of salvation.  We’re going to look at a few illustrations that I think will make our point.  Our first illustration is one that many people have a great interest in and it provides us with an easily grasped understanding of our study word “obey” - sports.

Which sport?  Well, really any of them.  Whatever your preference it doesn’t matter because the principle remains the same.  Why do I say that?  Because all of the participants have rules to follow.  Here’s some examples of various sports and rules infractions.

In baseball, a balk by the pitcher results in a penalty.  If you like football, offsides will result in being penalized.  In tennis, a let, or a foot foul, results in a penalty.  Or, like many of us who like golf understand that if you hit your ball out of bounds there is a penalty to pay for doing so.  By now, I’m sure that you get the idea.

All of them have rules to abide by AND all of them have judges of those rules.  There’s umpires, referees or arbiters of some sort.  Why?  To see that the rules are followed and that they are applied equally to all.  Here’s another question: Why is that?  Because we don’t like to see someone getting away with breaking the rules.  Of getting some sort of preferential treatment.  And I can personally attest to that.

As a police officer, I was tasked with enforcing traffic laws.  In many of my traffic stops for violations of traffic laws the driver was upset because they were caught and others didn’t get caught.  But, other drivers wanted the guy who ran the red light in front of him to be caught and cited, but wanted me to give them a pass.  One of the things all police officers come to know is, that many people want the rules applied to everyone but themselves.

Let’s go to the world of religion for our next illustration.  There are people who believe that a “loving God” won’t condemn a “good” person to hell.  Of course, in their definition, a “good” person is like being a good citizen.  Of not being a “bad” person, a criminal.

Also, many of the religious world believe the false doctrine of “once saved, always saved.”  In light of our topic word, think about it for a moment.  It’s like they’re saying “I once obeyed the rules so, if I break them now, I’m exempt from any penalty.”  Pretty easy to see the falseness of that belief, isn’t it?

Then, you hear others say that God is a “just” God and He won’t punish “good” people.  In my view, they’re misunderstanding the meaning of the world “just.”  They seem to think that it means “lenient.”  In the Bible, when it refers to the word “just” as applied to God and Christ, it means “righteous” or “equitable.”  It does not mean a form of leniency.  Or any form of Gospel rule exemption or preferential treatment.

The bottom line of our thoughts today is: God wrote the rule book - The Bible.  As such, God is the arbiter (the Judge) of the rules.  He is the umpire, the referee, or any other title that applies to those enforcing the rules.  And, he applies the rules equally to all.  There is absolutely nothing in His Word that says certain people have an exemption from the Gospel - the rules for salvation.

Plus, He is the ONLY arbiter.  There’s not going to be any “replay cameras” or any “appeals court” to hear your excuses.  The prophet Isaiah says: “.....There is no God else beside me, a just God and a savior, there is none beside me.”  (Isa. 45:21)

One final thought and then we’ll close.  Man has no authority to pick and choose which rules he wants to obey.  They apply equally to all and will be applied equally to all by the righteous Judge.  One short illustration: Many years ago I was a young employee of a large company.  I didn’t like doing one of the tasks assigned to me and was pretty lax in performing it. 

The boss called me into his office and advised me of my violation of “his” rules.  To the best of my remembrance, here’s what he told me.  He said: “I’m the boss.”  He then pointed toward his office wall and said, “Those are my rules on the wall.  When you’re the boss, you can put your rules up.  Until then, you’ll abide by mine.”  Trust me, I got the message and did what I was supposed to do whether I liked it or not.

In other words, since I didn’t make the rules, I had no authority to choose which ones I wanted to abide by if I wanted to keep getting a paycheck.  Spiritually, the same thing applies to all men equally.  We don’t make the rules and if we want to be rewarded with eternal salvation, we have to abide by the ones God has “put on the wall.”  The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 2:9 that we’re to be “obedient” in “all things.”

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey