Obedience, Obedience, Obedience

The following is a meditation on the necessity of obedience to Jesus Christ, including: excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, Scripture passages, and my own thoughts and meditations on the topic.

"Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at His behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised that you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered" (Bonhoeffer 67).

Luke 17:5-10
Faith and Duty
And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.  And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?  But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’?  Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” 


What this means is we are not to ask God to increase our faith if we are unwilling to obey the commands He has already given to us. Notice how in this Scripture passage Jesus is referred to as Lord with a capital L. We have lost sight in our culture what the meaning of the word Lord is. 

Lord- someone or something having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler.

God is the Lord in this parable as well as in our lives, and we are His servant. We must first obey Him and then our faith will increase. God is our Master and Lord and we are His servants. This relationship is based on love. We are like bond-servants who serve voluntarily, but we are servants nonetheless. We must never take away the authority which God holds. No matter how far we go in relationship with God there is never a moment where He ceases to be our Lord God and ultimate authority. Love does not negate the need for obedience or service, but rather obedience and service are outward symbols to show our inward love for God. If we love God, we will obey Him. Our duty is not to command God in what to do and to give us more faith, but to obey what He commands us to do. He is God, and we are His servants. We must never forget the proper relationship we maintain with God. In relation to Him we are always servant and He is always Master. 

Jesus said:
John 14:15  “If you love Me, keep My commandments."

Keeping His commandments include Biblical commandments which are clearly written in the Old Testament given by God and expanded upon by Jesus in the New Testament in the Gospels. In addition to this there are also everyday commandments that God gives us through the leading of the Holy Spirit. The only proper response to a commandment from God is obedience. No matter how long it takes, what ultimately matters is that we obey. 

"When a man says he cannot obey the call of Jesus because he believes, or because he does not believe, Jesus says: 'First obey, perform the external work, renounce your attachments, give up the obstacles which separate you from the will of God. Do not say you have not got faith. You will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step. You have not got faith so long as and because you will not take the first step but become hardened in your unbelief under the guise of humble faith.' It is a malicious subterfuge to argue like this, a sure sign of lack of faith, which leads in its turn to lack of obedience. This is the disobedience of the 'believers', when they are asked to obey, they simply confess their unbelief and leave it at that (Mark 9:24). You are trifling with the subject. If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don't believe, take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it. No one wants to know about your faith or unbelief, your orders are to perform the act of obedience on the spot. Then you will find yourself in the situation where faith becomes possible and where faith exists in the true sense of the word" (Bonhoeffer 67).


Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Macmillan, 1959. Print.