Obedient Discipleship

by Lisa Coleman

Obedient. Obedience. What do you think of when you hear these words? A child heeding instruction, an employee adhering to an employer’s task list, a wife submitting to her husband’s leadership and love, or a church member accepting directions from their pastor. I’m sure you can add many more examples.

Obedience from the Oxford dictionary is defined: a compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority, observance of a monastic rule. It is also described as a behavior that is respectful and mindful of rules and laws. One can be obedient to an order, rule, request, law, another person, or their own conscience.

I’m thankful for obedience to medical laws doctors follow, traffic laws drivers observe, and FDA regulations adhered to by food manufacturers. But how are we to be obedient to unwritten laws or rules? Guidelines if you will. Ideology? Eugene Peterson offers an interesting observation. 

At age 35 I bought running shoes and began enjoying the smooth rhythms of long-distance running. Soon I was competing in 10K races every month or so, and then a marathon once a year. By then I was subscribing to and reading three running magazines! Then I pulled a muscle and couldn’t run for a couple of months. Those magazines were still all over the house, but I never opened one. The moment I resumed running, though, I started reading again.

That’s when I realized that my reading was an extension of something I was a part of. I was reading for companionship and affirmation of the experience of running. I learned a few things along the way, but mostly it was to deepen my world of running. If I wasn’t running, there was nothing to deepen.

The parallel with reading Scripture is striking. If I’m not living in active response to the living God, reading about his creation/salvation/holiness won’t hold my interest for long. The most important question isn’t “What does this mean,” but “What can I obey?” Simple obedience will open up our lives to a text more quickly than any number of Bible studies, dictionaries, and concordances.

Source: Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book (William B. Eerdmans, 2006), pp. 70-71; paraphrased in the September 18 entry of Men of Integrity (September/October 2009)

It would seem experience is indeed an excellent teacher. We learn over the course of our lives that we cannot be where we want to be or who we want to be without engaging in what we say we want to be, who we say we are and what we say we stand for. Active response to something we believe in takes time, dedication, belief, faith, and endurance. It is an honest response to our declarations. It exposes the validity of our vows.

As we come to Chapter 18 of Acts, Paul continues to face opposition to his work. It seems opposition lies ahead at every stop on the journey. Yet, he never gives up or gives in, no matter how negative the response nor strong the opposition. He continues to plug along, obediently fulfilling his calling, trusting God for the results. Join us this week as we explore his devotion and continued service in Corinth.

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If you cannot be with us in person, feel free to download the Bible study materials for your personal use by following one of these links: PowerPoint Slides, PDF File. You can also find the video of this session on our YouTube channel soon after the meeting concludes. And lastly, you could follow this link to download other studies in this series: INpowered Discipleship if you happened to miss one of our prior studies.

Yours in Christ,

Eric Glover   
The Gospels Class     
Brentwood Baptist Church