“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
“To obey is better…” There is no addendum to this; it has no equal. Not even sacrifice will suffice. Offering external, spiritual, temporal, or ceremonial substitutes will not get us off the hook with God. We can’t impress Him with anything we try to replace obedience with. He will not excuse disobedience. Is it any wonder then that Martin Luther said, “I’d rather obey than work miracles”? I believe it was he who also said the three greatest words in the Bible are, "Obey! Obey! Obey!"
If we are to be loyal to Jesus Christ, we must be obedient. Loyalty and obedience are like Siamese twins. If separated, the result, as in this case, can be disastrous. Loyalty to Lordship demands obedience. “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” We need not fear the afterward consequence of obedience. Leave that to God. But know this for certain - He promised to give the power of His Spirit to those who obey Him.
Anytime we have a problem in our relationship with God, it can be traced to our questioning God’s commands to us. To debate them is to disobey. Our intellectual reasoning, like Saul, gets in the way of obedience. To obey one Scripture is better than a knowledge of the whole of it that is not obeyed. Remember the devil knows the Bible. May our testimony be that of Paul: “I was not disobedient…”
"The Christian life flourishes when obedience is preferred before being spiritual. "
(rds)
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