15/07/2026
Obedience to God's commandments is properly grounded in the grasp of God’s attributes.
Obedience to God’s commandments is most ideally an expression of absolute trust based on an accurate apprehension of his superiority over all of creation, including oneself. It is one thing to believe that God loves us, and desires our best. It is another to believe he knows what is best, and has the power to bring all things in the natural and supernatural realm together in order to bring what is best to pass. This trifecta is the sure intellectual footing for unshakeable trust: for faith that results in faithfulness. God is almighty (omnipotent). He can accomplish anything he sets his will to. God is omniscient (all-knowing), and He knows what to do because he knows everything. Finally, he loves his children, so that his power and knowledge are employed in the service of the ultimate good. Every step of obedience is a declaration of faith in these truths. Every step of obedience involves us not only in what is best for each one personally, but in a good greater than ourselves, the ultimate good, which is the ever-unfolding plan of God flowing out of the inextinguishable perfections of God.
Now, it is also the case that this accurate knowledge of God has a flip-side. Those creatures who have dealt honestly with the divine perfections, yield to them by a concurrent awareness of human imperfection. We are not omniscient—our knowledge is so limited that we don’t even know if our plans will bring us the happiness for which we hope. We are not omnipotent. Even if we knew what was best for ourselves or our loved ones, our power to accomplish that good is limited, ultimately by the limitations of our lifespan. Our time, as well as our abilities is finite. And if we are honest, is any human being perfectly altruistic? Would absolute power and knowledge in my hands or yours be safe for the world at large? Obedience is a statement of faith regarding humanity as well, then, for it declares not only what God is, but what we are not. We are not original, but derivative. We are not self-existent, but reliant every moment upon the divine sustenance. We are nothing purely or completely, but are fallen creatures in need of the divine impulse guiding us toward a good greater than ourselves. In heaven we will still have limitations, but we will be perfectly aligned, at least, with the good, the true, and the beautiful. In the meantime we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit,” to guide and stay us in the right way.
