To Obey Or Not Obey?

The girls watched The Sound Of Music yesterday. Fifi is really enjoying her study of WWII; we'll be parked here for a few weeks. TSOM is set during the rise of Hitl*r, so that counts, right? Ha!

After the movie, Dumpling came to me with a question about one of the last scenes of the movie. She wondered what to think about the nuns who confessed they had sinned when they took parts from the engines of the Nazi cars to keep them from pursuing the Von Trapp family over the mountains to Switzerland.

"What was the right thing to do?" was her question, "Because, that was really stealing, wasn't it, Mommy?"

And, of course, stealing is against God's Law. To make that choice would not be obedient.

Obedience.

So then, what is that, really?

What exactly is God asking of us when He commands us to obey? Is obedience a general, over-arching lifestyle or is it a standard for each and every individual moment of decision?

If it is obedient to always tell the truth, is it then disobedient to bear false witness to an enemy who would seek the whereabouts of another to harm him?

If it is obedient to refrain from alcohol so as to not quench the Spirit, is it then disobedient to accept mind-numbing pain killers when one is dying of cancer?

If it is obedient to regard and protect the unborn life that has been woven together by God, is it then disobedient to extinguish that life to save the life of the mother?

If it is obedient to claim Christ like a martyr in the face of death, is it still obedient if the life being threatened isn't your own, but a stranger's? A child's? Someone unprepared to meet eternity?

I admit it. I brissle every time I hear or read someone exhort others to obedience. And it's not because I don't want to obey Him. I love Him and I do want to please Him. I brissle because it's too often a glib rebuke made by a young person who hasn't yet gone through anything.

But some things simply have to be left to the learning. Those who would argue that, show themselves to be among the very group of which I speak.

So maybe the command to obedience is once again the picture of God's standard of holiness. And maybe I can't do it. Maybe I face a situation in which I can't even decide which is the obedient choice. Or maybe I do discover the choice of faithful obedience, but just. can't. execute. the. hard. choice.

Maybe sometimes I just get distracted by the subtle and overwhelming draw of the flesh and maybe sometimes I simply find myself deceived by my own lusts.

Then again, maybe...maybe my holiness is a result of obedience -- but the obedience isn't my own. The obedience was His. He accomplished it. He was pure enough to know it and strong enough to complete it.

So, I am relieved. I count myself one of the many that are counted righteous by way of His obedience.

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 5:19

And I will strive with all He makes available to me, to please Him with my obedience. And as I fail, I will confess and be forgiven. And be cleansed.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9