Christ's Obedience

Hebrews 5:8

“though He was a son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (NKJV)

Growing up, I was a rebellious child. I would get mad at my parents for having to do various tasks and question them on why I needed to do them at that moment. When I think of obedience, I don’t think of whether or not you have completed the task but rather how well you completed it and how did you obey. Christ not only obeyed His Father by living a sinless life and being crucified on the cross, but Christ also did it without complaining. For me personally, I would complete the task and get it done well, but I would question my parents, drag my feet and then complain later.

When I came to the Ignite program one of the first lectures we had was on obedience to authority. The Pastor said to us that we all truly hate authority being put over us; not in the sense that we hate the people, but in the sense that we hate not having freedom. All of us want to be self sufficient, praised and have the freedom to do whatever whenever without being questioned. This is because we live in corrupt bodies with selfish desires of self preservation and being like God. Many people, including me, have struggled and have rebelled against authority and many more have just wanted to lead their own lives. I have thought that life will get easier and simpler when I move out and pursue life on my own with nobody telling me that I need to do my chores. I thought it would be easier when I lead my own life and become a leader because then I won’t have to be steered by someone else and can instead steer my own life; but that was very wrong logic. My Pastor taught me that all hate authority, but even when we are authority we still have authority. We are really all playing a game of follow the leader; first it is God, then it is authority and lastly it is us.

To learn truly how to be a follower and be obedient, today I am going to ask my leader what the best traits for obedience are and how do we start pursuing these traits.