The Cost of Obedience

“Obedience brings blessing; disobedience brings conflict or trouble.”  Until it doesn’t. 

I learned this saying as a child. For most children growing up in Christian homes, it likely holds true most of the time.  But even well-meaning Christian parents don’t perfectly execute blessing for obedience and trouble for disobedience.  As a general rule for teaching children to obey, though, it works.

Costly Obedience in the Bible

In a world growing increasingly hostile to Christianity, the exact opposite of this saying is what is becoming more true. Sometimes the cost of obedience is high. But this isn’t a new phenomenon.  Obedience to God cost many people in the Bible in many ways.  For example, Joseph in the Old Testament chose to obey God and flee the temptation of Potiphar’s wife, and he ended up in prison.  Obedience did not bring him blessing from a human standpoint.  He eventually ended up being blessed, but things didn’t look too great for him for a while.  You can read more about his story in this post.

Most of us also know the story of Job.  His faithfulness to God did earn God’s blessing for many years. Then it cost him much suffering as God allowed Satan to put him to the test.  He lost his children, his wealth, his status, and his health.  God did return to blessing Job afterward, but for a time, Job’s obedience did not bring blessing.

Then there’s David.  We initially think of him as being blessed because God chose him to be the next king of Israel. However, that calling caused him much distress for many years as Saul hunted his very life.  David remained faithful to God during that time, but this faithfulness was costly as he ran from Saul, hiding in the wilderness and caves and among other pagan nations.

New Testament Examples

There’s many more Old Testament examples of prophets who faced hardship as a result of obedience, but what about New Testament examples? Many Christians in the early church faced severe persecution for their faith in Christ and obedience to Him.  Of course, we know of Paul who suffered much for his obedience to God’s calling on his life to preach the Gospel.  He faced beatings, shipwrecks, and imprisonment, to name a few.  And the people who inflicted these things upon him seemed to be the ones who were blessed. They continued to live comfortable lives while Paul faced trouble upon trouble.

The book of Revelation was written by John, Jesus’ disciple, while he was in exile on the isle of Patmos.  Let’s just say this wasn’t a vacation to the Bahamas.  Why was he there?  For preaching the Gospel.  He was obeying what God had called him to do, and it landed him in exile. The bright spot of this part of his story is that God gave him the vision of the book of Revelation that we now have to read and give us hope for the future.  But for John, his obedience was costly.

Evaluating Our Expectations

You may wonder if I’m just trying to depress you.  But that’s not my goal at all.  For some, not all, but some Christians who have grown up in Christian circles all of their lives, we can sometimes live in a false sense of reality thinking that if I obey God, everything should be wonderful in my life. I shouldn’t have struggles. It’s only those who rebel against God or don’t follow Him who have problems, trouble, and conflict.  

The problem is that’s not true.  So when troubles and conflicts arise in our lives, we can feel upset at God as if He’s not holding His end of the bargain.  “I obeyed You, God, but I’m not being blessed.  I’m actually hurting.  I’m facing financial hardship or extreme conflict with someone. My health is suffering. What’s the deal?  I don’t know how to walk through this.” 

Then we read God’s promises in the Psalms and other places in the Bible, and things don’t seem to be adding up.  “God, You’re supposed to bring down the wicked and raise up the righteous.  Why is the opposite of that happening in my situation?”  “Lord, You promised to heal, but I’m struggling with chronic illness.”  “God, no matter how I try to follow the principles in Your Word, I can’t seem to find reconciliation with this person.”  “Lord, You promise to provide, but we’re barely making ends meet.”  And on it goes.

So what’s my point? We need to be careful in our Christian circles not to unintentionally create false expectations in our children and other believers.  Should we teach our children to obey? Definitely. The Bible says to. Should we teach them to honor their parents so that it will be well with them? (Eph. 6:2-3). Yes. The Bible teaches this. But obedience can be costly.

Teach Your Children the Cost of Obedience

We must also teach our children about the cost of obeying God so that it doesn’t shock them when trouble happens.  Sometimes we can so cushion their lives that when hardship comes, they can become completely lost in their Christian walk.  Teach your children the stories of the people I mentioned above along with others in the Bible.  Read to them about people who stood for God at great cost.  I’m not saying you should always focus on hardship. However, at the same time, we shouldn’t create the expectation that they will never have trouble as long as they obey God. 

Obedience does bring the blessing of God, but sometimes it doesn’t look or feel like blessing at the time. Sometimes the blessing might not come until later.  And sometimes obedience will cost them and us dearly. We always have the blessing of maintaining a right relationship with God and knowing He is with us through everything we face, but earthly blessing might not come when or the way we expect it to.

Teach them to obey and honor, yes.  But teach them to obey and honor God, no matter what.  “If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him,” as a character in the movie Facing the Giants states.  No matter what, we praise God.  No matter what, we stay faithful to God.  No matter what, we follow God.  No matter what, we trust God. 

Practice What You Teach

This might be easy to say, but it’s no picnic to practice at times.  Practice it, though, as parents.  It’s ok if your children know about some of the struggles you face as a family, whether that’s financial or losing loved ones, etc.  Use discernment, but realize they will learn how to walk through hardship from you as their parents.  Let them see how you may struggle to keep trusting, but you still choose to keep trusting.  Let them see you digging into the Word to find hope.  This is how they will learn to do it for themselves.

May we say with Job at the end of each trial, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.” (Job 42:5, NKJV). That is our aim…to truly see and know God more and become more like Christ.  Someday, for those of us who have trusted Christ, we will be eternally blessed in Heaven. “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great god and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:13, NKJV) We will have the true rest we long for.  Until then, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23, NKJV)