Article July 13, 1987 Issue

The rewards of obedience

If we are looking for more freedom and greater individuality, we should cultivate obedience—not toss it out.

Eric Bole

The very mention of the word obedience tends to send shivers down the spine of human thought. All too often obedience is conceived of as restricting the expression of one's individuality. Actually, obedience to that which is right and good promotes and enhances the expression of our true nature as man, God's spiritual likeness.

Nonetheless, human thought tends to rebel against the need for obedience because it wishes to do what it calls "its own thing." History shows that undisciplined human thought, pursuing its own selfish interests, has too frequently plunged men into the most evil acts, causing them to betray, enslave, and destroy each other. But history—especially Biblical history—also shows that when human thought has reached out to something higher than itself to meet its needs, the divine presence of God has come to the rescue. God, who is always present, has made manifest His divine law, which, when understood and obeyed, has led mankind into enlarged security and freedom, peace and harmony.

The complete example of God's government of man is seen in the life of the great Master, Christ Jesus. Through living in total obedience to God, his Father, Jesus demonstrated the dominion of the Christ, Truth, over evil of every sort, over envy, hatred, and violence. He freed people from all manner of sin, sickness, disease—even from death. He accomplished this through subordinating the human sense of self to the divine. He said, "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."^{John 5:30.} He not only subscribed to the God-given law, as revealed to Moses and the prophets; he taught that perfect and eternal Life could be gained only through living in obedience to the law of Love—through loving God supremely and one's neighbor as oneself.