Obeying God

 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37, 39).

 

        “It bothers me,” someone said to me following my Sunday morning message, “that in this church we don’t wash each other’s feet like Jesus told us to. Are we being disobedient to God?”

In fact, of course, there are many directives in the Bible which we no longer observe. We don’t often think about why; we just know that it’s no longer necessary to conform to a literal understanding of the words. Jesus did tell us to wash one another’s feet (John 13:14), but we understand that it’s the principle behind the action that matters. So serving one another in humility and hospitality—the principle—remains, but it’s up to us to find appropriate ways to do so in our time.

“Give to the one who asks you,” Jesus said (Matthew 5:42). Yet I routinely refuse to give to those who come to the church door seeking money because I know that their needs are better met by the social service agencies to which I direct them. The principle is to provide help to those who need it, and when that help can be more consistent and far-reaching, love urges us in that direction.

        The Apostle Paul told women to avoid elaborate hairstyles and fancy jewelry (1 Timothy 2:8-10). The principle was modesty, and we promote the guideline not in its first-century specifics but in those relevant to our culture. In the same passage he spoke of men praying by “lifting up holy hands.” For us reverence in prayer may be expressed in other ways—folded hands, bowed heads, quiet hearts.

        Obedience to God is a matter of observing principles God provides. Love (acting in a way that is kind and truthful) offered in faith is the issue. What that love looks like is determined by local circumstances. “According to your faith it will be done to you,” Jesus said to two blind men as he healed them (Matthew 9:29). Faith was what mattered, not the particulars of the healing procedure. According to their faith, it was done.

Life happens for us in proportion to what we offer. Love people, we get people to love. Give much, we receive much. Focus on the good, we find the good coming to us. Have big faith, and we discover, as Carl Sandburg said of Lincoln, “far lights and tall rainbows to live by.” And that is obedience to the will of God.

 

Copies of Mike’s book You Are Rich: Discovering Faith in Everyday Moments, a collection of 60 faith-related reflections, can be ordered from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.