Attitude and Obedience

[HKHaugan]

I remember in school the warning from fellow students about certain teachers, “Boy, if you're not obedient to their rules you will suffer.” And a coach saying with that stern look on his face, “Obedience rules on this team.” Obedience seems to carry a negative 'You better...' tone when you hear the word. It's an attitude word. That's what we need to probe.

When we are talking attitude it is necessary to include obedience. It is one thing to be obedient. It is another to have it as an attitude. The first indicates a kind of self-centered “I'll do it because it gets me by.” It has no point but survival. The second is spiritually grounded with a mindset that desires to please God. Sin, exploiting the first, has crept into our cultural language getting us to resent obedience and all those who call for it. Sin is the guilty party that takes hold of our conscious moments to avoid spiritual obedience because “It's my life and I'm really a good person at heart.” God's grace and love fill the second with the recognition of an eternal God who wants only the best for His people. This recognizes the good He brings and the evil that needs corrective adjustment. Obedience brings blessings and discipline both of which work toward the heart's recovery into His eternal presence.

Jesus, who never ever needed correction, chose the way of obedience (Lk.2:51) for our sake and endured death because of His continued obedience (Lk.22:42). In fact Paul tells us that He was “obedient to death, even death on the Cross (Php.2:8)!” The religious authorities got Him crucified because they didn't like His kind of obedience. He had the audacity to believe and live as though He was personally related to God as His Father. He desired to do His Father's will before that of the religious demands of human authority. In fact He had the nerve to suggest His Father was available to anyone who believed in Him and His Words (Mt.24:35) and therefore be His children as well.

What Jesus did was to take relationship captive, rescue it, redeem it, destroy the baggage attached to it, return it to God and give it spiritual depth. Anyone who believed in Him was guaranteed a direct personal relationship with the Father. Not only that, but the relationship was sealed by the Holy Spirit who took residence in the hearts of believers.

No wonder obedience took on a new dimension of understanding.

Jesus changed the nature of every kind of relationship from marriage to friendship by spiritualizing and empowering them by the same Spirit. They became the Lord's relational experiences instead of slavish legalistic duties. Obedience came away from the begrudging having to tithe to a deep desire to give God everything and let Him lead the way in everything. Jesus released obedience to be a Resurrection quality that could lead us to know the depth of sin, its power and toxic flavor and the desire to overcome it. This was accomplished not to please the self but to please, thank and praise God. This was the transformation of attitude from sin to desire, to being right with God. Instead of thinking “I guess I'm stuck with having to...” now I really want to make God happy with my choices. Obedience brings blessings. It is an attitude of the heart.

So far we have looked at attitude as a way to measure the heart and its responses. What we discover is that obedience completes the restoration of our attitude. The connection between looking forward, connecting the dots, dependency and being being obedient is a fourfold means to having the attitude Jesus had when He went to the Cross on our behalf.

Scripture gives us the positive spiritual side of obedience and its blessings. Look at the amazing promises that were fulfilled in Abraham and Sarah with Isaac, the beginning of God's chosen people and the coming of the Messiah. The presence of God in Jesus right here on earth and His continuing work in our life through His Word and the Holy Spirit.

Scripture is rich with examples. It would take volumes to comment on them. There is one I would suggest as a starter. It not only makes a great meditation but letting it speak right to where you are, that really gets it. Look at Psalm 119. In it the full range of human emotion is tracked in its 176 verses. It is an amazing treatise on obedience. It is full of the positive calling, the promises that follow and the elevation of the human heart to God's heart. It lays out the emotional downdraft, the struggle of conscience and the recognition of how separated we are from God, yet how available He is to each of us right where we are at anytime and any place.

The rest of the Psalms carry threads of obedience woven into them as well. Even in the iconic 23rd where neither the word obedience nor its synonyms appear, the image of the shepherd with a rod and staff carry with it a need for obedience and the promise it offers. Note its presence there is cushioned in a sense of the Lord's care and concern. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and staff, they comfort me.” God is 'with me.” He “comforts me.”

But one important note to register here. It is the Word of God, His Holy Scripture that is consistently mentioned throughout. Again we don't mean slavish forced study to earn points and say, “Phew, I did my daily thing in the Bible. Now I can get on with life.” No, no! It is reading it with the expectation that the Spirit will bring those precious insights for which He is so famous. The Bible is a conduit for the Holy Spirit. That's what is so great about it. Every word is inspired, 'in-Spirited.' Staying in the Word guarantees a transformation in attitude. Attitude is the shape of our heart. The Word is our treasury. “For where your treasury is, there your heart [and your attitude] will be also (Mt.6:21).”