Disobeying God
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Searching the Scriptures
David A. Bass, Rockford Church of Christ
A brief study of the Bible reveals the seriousness of disobeying God.
Sadly, many do not understand that there are several different ways of disobeying God. How does one disobey God? Today, let’s notice a couple of ways.
One of the most obvious ways of disobeying God is to do what God has expressly forbidden. When God forbids our doing a certain thing and we do it anyway, we sin!
In Genesis 2:16-17, Adam and Eve were expressly forbidden to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The devil, in the form of a serpent, tempted Eve, and she ate of the fruit and gave some to Adam, and he also ate of it.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by doing what He had expressly forbidden, and they suffered the consequences (Genesis 3:16-19). This is the first sin recorded in the Bible.
In Genesis 19, God instructed Lot and his family to leave the city of Sodom before He destroyed it. Through His angels, God instructed them to leave quickly and not to look back at the destruction of the city.
Lot’s wife disobeyed God by looking back. She did exactly what God had expressly forbidden, and she was immediately turned into a pillar of salt (John 19:26). We read in I John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
When God forbids something, we must not do it!
A second way of disobeying God is by refusing to do what is commanded. In the book of Jonah we read God’s instructions to Jonah to go and preach to the wicked city of Ninevah.
Instead of obeying God, Jonah boarded a ship that was sailing in the opposite direction. Because of his refusal to do what God had commanded, he was thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish that God had prepared for Jonah.
Jonah learned the hard way that there is no hiding from God or escaping our duty to God! We will either do what God commands us to do and be rewarded, or we will suffer the consequences of our failure to obey God.
King Saul is another example of one who refused to do what God commanded (I Samuel 15:1-23). God commanded Saul to utterly (completely) destroy the Amalekites and all of their livestock (I Samuel 15:3).
Saul disobeyed God when he spared the life of King Agag and also the animals that were suitable for sacrifice to God. His intentions were good, but he was still condemned because he had failed to carry out God’s commandments.
This Old Testament example should remind us of the importance of doing ALL that God commands!
When we only do a part of what God says, we have not obeyed God. King Saul lost his throne because of disobedience, and we will lose our home in heaven if we disobey God!
James 4:17 reads, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
We can learn many valuable lessons from these Old Testament examples that we have studied. One lesson is: God says what He means, and means what He says!
Our eternal destiny depends upon our obedience to God! Search the Scriptures.
Visit with us at the Rockford Church of Christ on Sunday morning at 9:00 for Bible Study and
10:00 for worship. We are located on Highway 231 near Dollar General.
