The Benefits of Obedience

Obedience stands at the heart of discipleship. We can “obey” for more than one reason. If someone is threatening to hurt us, we may obey out of fear. Someone might also physically force us to obey. 

As Individuals

The obedience that is part of discipleship is not about blind submission, fear, or compulsion. In the context of discipleship, obedience is the pathway to becoming the fullest version of who we are meant to be. The journey of obedience is not about bolstering God’s ego, as if he will be hurt or outraged if we don’t comply. It’s not about satisfying his arbitrary will and commands. Rather, obedience is an essential ingredient in our own transformation into holy and healed beings.

When we embrace obedience to God’s word, we step into a process that shapes us into the holiness that God envisages for us. This isn’t merely about following rules. You can follow rules without any investment in what they mean. You can be a rule-follower and never truly grow spiritually. A true heart-obedience is about entering into a life that is both healthy and holy. Obedience is the catalyst that turns us into the version of ourselves that God intended from the beginning. In obeying Jesus, we find not just a fulfillment of duty, but the embrace of God’s best for us.

God invites us to follow Jesus and to do what he commands, not as a tyrant who makes demands, but as a loving Father who knows that this path is for our benefit. It is a divine nudge towards our healing and wholeness. It is God calling us to drop the facades and crutches we have picked up along the way as we have navigated life’s harsh realities. Instead, God calls us to trust him so deeply that we will not need those facades and crutches.

In Community

Discipleship happens in the company of others. Within the church, people come together, bringing their brokenness and baggage. Each person has developed skills and defenses to survive their unique circumstances. But in discipleship, we are invited to lay these aside. As Mark Batterson has said, “God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.” Being known and accepted by God empowers us to participate in his work. As we do so, we find that we are made whole.

In discipleship, we become vulnerable to others. The armor we have crafted for ourselves–our strategies for survival–falls away. We realize that those coping strategies are not only unnecessary but are impediments to the true life Jesus offers. Discipleship involves a sometimes gradual process of taking down our self-defenses, allowing Jesus to replace them with his assurance and presence. It is in this surrender that we find our true strength.

Healing 

In discipleship, obedience is about letting go of our makeshift solutions and allowing Jesus to heal each wound, every broken piece within us. This process can be terrifying because it requires relinquishing control. For the recovering perfectionist, for instance, the notion that you can be “good enough” for God without the merit badges of accomplishment is revolutionary. It reorients our souls towards grace rather than achievement.

And Jesus not only does this work in us for our own sakes. He moves through us to reach others. Our wounds become windows through which his love can shine into other people’s lives. Discipleship, therefore, is not a solo endeavor but a pilgrimage together towards wholeness.

Living out discipleship authentically is messy. It does not fit neatly into programs or strategies. It involves vulnerability and risk. It means dealing with triggers and facing the aspects of ourselves we would rather not confront. Yet, in these very challenges lies the potential for profound healing.

We learn in discipleship that although God is coming for our idols and defenses, He is also tenderly coming for every wound. This healing journey is one we share with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Together, we learn who the real Jesus is, and together, we relinquish the lesser things to which we have pledged our allegiance.

As we walk this path, we embrace the fact that discipleship is designed to reach into the parts of ourselves that we have hidden away. The process is not just about surface-level behaviors but involves reaching into the core, to things we may not even be aware of within ourselves. God, in his time, illuminates these areas not to shame us, but to invite us to see them rightly and to choose to follow Jesus on a journey to healing.

To obey Jesus is to embark on an adventure of self-discovery and communal support. It is to learn the rhythms of grace and the power of a life lived not in self-reliance but in divine dependence. In this obedience, we become who we were always meant to be: reflections of the God who called us, whole and holy, into his marvelous light.