Greetings Balanced Life Readers,
There’s a story in the Bible of a man named Samuel, who gave instructions to a king named Saul. The instructions came straight from God and were very specific. The king carried out most of the instructions, but not all of them. He allowed his own reasoning to alter his actions. He reasoned that his way would be better because he’d be doing a good deed, so he partially obeyed.
I’m asking you. Does partial obedience count as obedience? Do we get at least some credit for partially obeying? Samuel told King Saul, in 1 Samuel 15:22 “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” If we offer a sacrifice out of disobedience, the sacrifice is tainted and God won’t accept it. No, we don’t get credit for partially obeying. Partial obedience is COMPLETE DISOBEDIENCE. If you read that scripture, you’ll see that God punished Saul greatly for his partial obedience.
The Bible is written for our learning. What do we learn from this? We learn to obey is better than any sacrifice or good deed we can offer. As we read, study and are taught the Word of God, we are required to obey the things we learn. God’s Word speaks to us and we can’t pick and choose which parts we want to obey.
It doesn’t matter how much money we give, work we do around the church, how many services we make, songs we sing, prayers we pray or even how much of the Word we teach or preach. These are all good deeds, but if we don’t obey, these deeds are tainted and it’s all in vain.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession” Exodus 19:5
Obedience to God has a great reward, but we’ll never receive it through “PARTIAL OBEDIENCE”.
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