Some Christians are struggling between the Good News and fake news. The fake news phenomenon is not new to this generation. God has dealt with this for a long time. The Bible identifies the fake news suppliers as false prophets. During the days of Jeremiah, Hananiah was guilty of misleading the people. He was prophesying Judah’s captivity to be two years. God spoke through Jeremiah, sharing that the captivity would last 70 years. As you could imagine, Jeremiah was not very popular with the people! God addresses Hananiah in Jeremiah 28:15, “Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you. Yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies.” (NIV) This struggle still exists today. People have doubts whether to believe in such things as the creation and is Jesus really the Messiah? Are we getting our in formation from the wrong source? How do we overcome this dilemma?
This blog is the second of a four part series on godliness. This post will discuss the O of C.O.R.E., which is obedience. I will explore some of the obstacles that make it hard to believe and obey Jesus. The Bible says if we love God, we will obey His commands. 1 John 5:3, “This is love for God, to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” (NIV)
Allastair Begg once said, “There is a mass confusion today – even in the evangelical church – over whether the Bible is true and over how far we go in obeying it.” The struggle we have obeying God’s word is not a lack of having God’s word. We have access to more translations of the Bible than ever before. Many of the translations can even be put on just about any mobile device. Widely available are many written copies of the word. American households average 4.4 copies of the written word. We are saturated with copies of the word of God; so wouldn’t you think there would be unending transformation as a result? So the question becomes, why not?
In a recent survey, Barna Research group uncovered some chilling findings. Barna wanted to identify how many Christians have a “biblical worldview”. In this survey, Barna defined a “biblical worldview” by the following statement:
“believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.”
In this research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a “biblical worldview”. Surprisingly, the findings show only 19% of born again Christians believe all of the six parts of the previous statement. It seems to me this statement should be fundamental to all followers of our Lord Jesus Christ! Titus 1:1 says, “Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness… ” (NIV) Why are we lacking in what should be common knowledge? We need to embrace the word and the truth that leads to godliness! Why is this so difficult?
I elude this to what I call Lackadaisical Christianity. Many Christians do not spend enough time in the word. I read in an article by the Religion News Service that 57% of Christians read the Bible four times a year or less! If you fed a newborn only four times a year, the results would be devastating. By not spending time in the word, Christians do not have any defense from evil. Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” (NIV) The word is our fighting weapon. The devil is on the prowl, and we cannot afford to have our defenses down.
In addition, we have to avoid the trap of picking and choosing what we will obey. The Bible is not like a buffet where you choose your favorites while ignoring those things that are not so likeable. What seems right, or what we think is best, is not up to us. God knows best! King Saul made a poor choice of his own by disobeying God. In 1 Samuel 15 Saul was instructed by God to totally destroy the Amalekites. As we read the account, we learn that Saul spared both King Agag and some of the animals as plunder. Samuel says to Saul in verse 19, “Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” A command of God might not make sense to us, but it does to the Lord. We need to remember Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (NIV) God’s word must have providence in our lives.
To combat the issue at hand, we must surrender it all to him. Surrender what, you might ask? Surrender has such a negative connotation. We picture holding our hands up to an enemy fighting against us. Inevitably, we have to make a choice, either God is our enemy or God is our savior. There is nothing in between. James 4:4 says, “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (NIV)
After we give up fighting, we must relinquish all control to God. Life becomes His way, not our way. We cannot choose what we give up or what part of the Bible we would like to obey. To overcome this, do not focus on what you have to give up to follow Jesus, focus on what you have to gain by following Him. It is an all or nothing choice that takes a lifetime to achieve. A litmus test to identify if God has control in your life is found in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What does our heart gravitate toward, sin or righteousness?
If we are having trouble surrendering it all to Jesus, we must keep this verse in mind. Galatians 3:22 says, “But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin. It does so in order what was promised might be given to those who believe. The promise comes through faith in Jesus Christ,” (NIRV) Surrender unlocks the door to become obedient followers of Jesus.
Faith is a key ingredient in obedience. Romans 1:5 says, “Through him and for his name’s sake, we receiver grace and apostleship to call people from among all Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” (NIV) If you think you need more faith to believe and obey Jesus, you probably already have enough. The apostles thought they needed more so they asked Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus responds in Luke 17:6 with a parable, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Faith in God has such power.
Subsequently, faith does not grow per se. Faith is refined. Jesus follows up verse 6 of the parable with these words in verses 7 – 9. “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep, Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat?’ Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink?’ Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?” We find the purpose of verses 7 – 9 for us in verse 10, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'” Jesus is telling us from verse 10 that we do not need more faith, our faith is being refined by our humility and obedience to Him.
To sum all this up, we see in Romans 1: 5 that faith is from obedience, and in Luke 17, that faith increases (is refined) from obedience. It is like a continuous circle. Faith is the eyes to see what are minds know from the word of God. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (NIV) Finally in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (NIV) Simply put, obedience comes from submitting our lives to the control of Jesus, from hearing and believing the word and from doing what it says.