The Importance of Godly Obedience

There are only two paths in life for humans to walk; the path of disobedience to God or the path of obedience to God.

This reality is essential to understand because, as believers who have been saved by Jesus, we are called to walk a path of obedience to God. Obedience is the foundation for all godly living and all ministry, and here’s why. When we give the message of the gospel, we call people from disobedience to obedience, so if we are living in disobedience, then we are being hypocrites and not living up to the calling that God has given us for our lives.

When we live in disobedience, the people we are trying to reach will see our testimony, and the message of the gospel will lose its effectiveness because our witness will destroy it. If we want to be successful in our ministry, we must give the gospel, but we must also live lives that are marked by obedience.

We must live an example out before those that we are trying to reach. We see this modeled by Jesus perfectly in His life. He lived a perfect life before His disciples and before all those to whom He taught the truth. We, as followers of Jesus, must live the same way, living a life marked by obedience, so that our message of the gospel will not be undermined by our example.

True Believers Must Acknowledge the Authority and Inerrancy of Scripture

Since obedience is the foundation of all godly living and ministry, it is important that we as believers have a solid understanding of how God wants us to live our lives in order to bring glory and honor to Him. 

We find truth in the pages of Scripture. Scripture is God’s story, and God’s law for mankind. It’s how He desires that we should live here on Earth, and how we should interact with Him and be His people. 

Jesus put a tremendous emphasis on Scripture. He believed that it was perfect, He taught that it was perfect, and He lived a perfect life to fulfill it. When we call upon Jesus for salvation, we put our hope and trust in Him and hope with confidence that we will be with Him in Heaven at the end when He judges the world. 

For this faith to be grounded in truth, we must have a view of Scripture that holds it as perfect and inerrant because Jesus held it as perfect and inerrant. If we’re going to be His disciples we need to think the way He thought and see Scripture the way He did.

Good Hermeneutics is Rooted in a Deep Love for God and His Word

To have a solid understanding of God’s word, we need to be able to properly interpret the Scriptures. This interpretation is called hermeneutics, and hermeneutics is extremely important for the believer because practicing bad interpretation or bad hermeneutics leads to false teaching and heresy. 

We should desire to practice good hermeneutics because we should be driven by a love for Jesus and a desire to obey His Word. Out of that desire should grow a desire to understand exactly what God is communicating to us through His Word. In addition, our desire to gain biblical understanding will produce the discipline of practicing good hermeneutics. 

We cannot live lives that are obedient and that fulfill the calling of God, and we cannot teach others and make disciples if we practice bad interpretation.

Sanctification is God’s Path of Growth for Individual Believers

If we are going to be effective at making disciples of others, then it is imperative that we grow ourselves as a disciple. 

Spiritual growth is the outpouring of obedience and being in God’s word. It is the fruit that comes from being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. If we try to disciple others without first growing ourselves, or if we try to disciple others while we are going backward in our growth, we are practicing the absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy. 

During His ministry, Jesus called out the Pharisees for their hypocrisy time and time again. He called them the blind leading the blind because they did not practice what they preached. He also called them whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones. 

We don’t want to be practicing hypocrisy as we try to disciple others. We want to live the life that we are discipling others to have, and we must show them what is right by example. That is, how to follow Jesus, how to love God, how to be obedient, how to be in the Word, and how to live a life that brings glory to God.

Servant Leadership is the Prescribed Method of Leadership for Jesus Christ’s Kingdom

As we grow spiritually, we will become motivated to serve God because we will love Him, and we will be thankful for what He has done for us by going to the cross. 

Jesus taught His disciples that servant leadership was the prescribed form of leadership for the Kingdom of God. Then he modeled it! He modeled it by loving them. He modeled it by teaching them by being patient with them, by washing their feet, and ultimately by going to the cross for them and for us. 

Jesus perfectly understood the concept that leadership without service is only delegation. If you lead without serving those who you lead, then you merely give them tasks and leave them to those tasks. However, when you serve them, you work with them and lead them by example. 

Jesus modeled this for us, and we are called to lead those we disciple by loving them and serving them, just as Jesus loved us and served us by giving up everything to go to the cross.

We don’t want to be practicing hypocrisy as we try to disciple others. We want to live the life that we are discipling others to have, and we must show them what is right by example. That is, how to follow Jesus, how to love God, how to be obedient, how to be in the Word, and how to live a life that brings glory to God.

The Work of Ministry Belongs to the Holy Spirit

As believers, we are saved, and we live in obedience and faith through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When you accepted Christ into your life to be the Savior and Lord of your life, God did something incredible; He put His Spirit in your heart! 

He put His Spirit in your heart to allow you to live a life that is obedient to Him and give you the power and the strength that you would need to serve Him here in this fallen world.

Then God called you to join Him in ministry! Now, the Holy Spirit has been sent into the world to do ministry by drawing believers to Himself, drawing those who do not know Jesus to the Father, and sanctifying those who are called to live a life of godliness to be children of God.

When God calls us into ministry, it is not a task that we can do on our own. In fact, it is almost always a task that exceeds our human strength, but He has given us the power of the Holy Spirit that works in us and through us to accomplish ministry. 

As believers, we must fall in line with the Holy Spirit and let Him take the lead in our lives so that we will be empowered to do the work that God has given us and to live in humble obedience to the leading and the guidance of the Spirit. Then the Spirit will work through us in power and bring success to the ministry work we are doing for the Kingdom.

Jesus modeled this for us, and we are called to lead those we disciple by loving them and serving them, just as Jesus loved us and served us by giving up everything to go to the cross.

We don’t want to be practicing hypocrisy as we try to disciple others. We want to live the life that we are discipling others to have, and we must show them what is right by example. That is, how to follow Jesus, how to love God, how to be obedient, how to be in the Word, and how to live a life that brings glory to God.

Kingdom Followers Must be Ready to Give an Answer for Their Hope

1 Peter 3:15 tells us that we should be prepared to give a defense for our hope in the Gospel.

Being able to defend our faith is vital because we are called to live lives of obedience, even when we are suffering. 

In reality, this passage is teaching that when you live a life of obedience, and you are filled with joy because you are obeying God and are filled with the Holy Spirit, everyone around you will see this joy that is permeating out of your life.

Witnessing your joy will make them ask you many questions, and you need to defend your hope! They will ask, “Why are you happy? Why do you have so much hope?”

Today, we call being able to answer such questions “apologetics.” Understanding and practicing good apologetics is extremely important for every Kingdom follower because the true purpose of apologetics is being able to give to the world an answer for why we have hope in Jesus. 

It is how Kingdom followers explain to the world why we have hope in the Gospel, and why we have hope in a future redeemed with Him in perfect fellowship with God forever.

Prayer is a Love Communication Between God the Father and His Adopted Children

As we serve in ministry, we need an open line of communication with God. Thankfully He has provided one for us in prayer. Prayer is how we talk to God; it is how we give Him praise and give Him glory. However, it is also how we ask Him for what we need to do the ministry work that He has called us to in this life. 

Prayer is not a matter of obedience; prayer is a matter of love. Prayer is a communication with God, our Father, who we love, who loves us. It is an open dialogue that we can have with our Creator, who has made us, has crafted every day of our life, has given us hope in His Son Jesus Christ, and has sent us out to do His work in the world by sharing the good news of salvation. 

He wants to hear from us. He wants us to bring our needs to Him every day. The same way a father would want to hear from his children, so God wants to hear from us. 

When we are pursuing obedience, studying the Scriptures, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and growing spiritually in a love for God, we desire to be in constant communication with Him. We desire to talk with Him and hear from Him constantly. 

Then our love for Him will be the foundation of all of our communication with Him. It will bring us to our knees to talk to Him, to repent to Him, to cry out to Him, to praise Him, and to thank Him for what He is doing in our life and for the incredible privilege that He has given us in serving His kingdom through ministry.

Making Disciples is the Primary Function of Every Kingdom Follower

I once met this young man, and like most people that I meet for the first time, I asked him, “What is it that you do?” What I meant was, “What is it that you do for work every day?” However, he answered, “I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. And during the day, I’m a machinist.”

I was so taken back by that answer, but the more I thought about it, it made a lot of sense to me.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He stood on the mountain with His disciples, and He said, “Go make disciples!” Obviously, they were going to have to do something else as well. They were going to have to work to support themselves. They were going to have to be able to do all the things that we have to do to keep life going on this earth every day.

However, his instruction to His disciples was to go make disciples; that was to be their primary function. Just like them, making disciples must be our primary function. Everything else that has to do with life, school, work, and so on comes after being disciple-makers for the Kingdom.

It is the responsibility of every follower of Jesus Christ to go out and make disciples wherever they go, trusting God to meet their needs through opportunities He opens to provide the things they need. Whether that provision comes through a job, support, or doing ministry, God has promised that He will always meet the needs of His children. This principle is clearly taught in His Word. 

The Kingdom follower’s primary task is to make disciples of all nations by carrying the gospel with them wherever they go. In this way, believers will be actively involved in ministry, and the Kingdom of God will grow through people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.