An Obedient Faith

Often we speak of faithful obedience. And rightly so. Whatever good we may do on this earth is without meaning unless it is done out of faith in the Lord. But often, we neglect to flip the phrase around the other way, and consider faith as obedience.

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
I John 3:23

Here, John writes that we are commanded to believe. Faith isn't something that simply happens to us. Rather, we consider the evidence provided (John 20:30-31) and choose to obediently decide based on the word (Romans 10:17). Indeed, Jesus was asked about this subject (John 6:22-40), and responded in verse 29:

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The context tells us that this belief is not something that God does or has done, but rather, it something that we must all do if we wish to follow the Lord. In short, we are commanded to believe, and so, being obedient, we choose to do so.

We can see this same obedient faith in the great heroes of the Bible as well. In the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, we see this obedient faith in Abel (v 4), in Noah (v 7), in Abraham (v 8-10, 17), in Isaac (v 20), in Jacob (v 21), in Joseph (v 22), in Moses (v 24-28), in the Israelites (v 29, 30) and in Rahab (v 31). Faith is held not outside of obedience, but in obedience.

Which of course begs a question. Is it the only thing we must obey the Lord in? Is our obedient faith an intellectual acceptance, and that's the end of our obedience? Of course not. If we obey in one part, we should obey in all parts. Just as we should obey the command to believe, we should obey the Lord's other commands, whether of baptism (Acts 10:48), of repentance (Acts 17:30), of assembling (Hebrews 10:25), of the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:19), of prayer (I Thessalonians 5:17), of holiness and purity (I Peter 1:15-16), or in regard to anything else of which the Lord has spoken.

Just as we cannot hope to be pleasing to God without faith (Hebrews 11:6), it is impossible to be pleasing to God if we do not obey His other commandments. Either we walk with Him wholeheartedly and completely, or we do not walk with Him at all.

Take a few moments and consider: Do you have faith, as required by God? Do you continue to wholeheartedly follow the Lord's other commands? Or are there limits as to you willingness to obey the Lord?