Obedience

We are dependent people that cannot truly think and make decisions for ourselves.  As children, we obeyed our parents.  As adults, we follow our leaders and vote for those we believe will govern fairly.  But how can we make such a judgment?  We listen to what they say and vote for those we believe will be just and true leaders.  Too many, though, once elected turn out to be very poor leaders.  We see that they do not do as they promised at all.  Many turn out to be blatant liars and some are truly evil.  They lie without any concern for truth. Many even openly admit their utter lack of respect for honesty.  How can we continue to live as free people with such leaders? 

Truly, we cannot continue to live as free people in such a putrid environment.  There must be honesty in our hearts and our words or our civilization falls apart.  Without honesty, the strong govern the weak to their own advantage and a once-free people are in effect enslaved. 

How can this be avoided?  How can a people be free and still live together without the strong governing and exploiting the weak?  It is only possible when there is a benevolent super-strong agency that effectively governs everyone.  Historically, this agency has been God.  When people believe in God and obey His Commandments, they love one another and live peacefully together.

Obedience to God’s ten commandments is the minimum requirement for true peace on earth.  When all or nearly all obey there is peace and much prosperity.  When none or very few obey there is chaos and confusion.  The strong rule over and eventually make servants and then slaves of the weak.  When this becomes or is seen as oppression, the weak revolt and overthrow them for a time.  But it doesn’t last long.  The next generation forgets God and the cycle repeats over and over again.

We have never seen the extremes but have of late moved further and further toward neglect followed by open disobedience of God’s Commandments.  We are following the path of ancient Israel and it seems we just can’t learn any other way.  Why? Why is this so?  Why can’t we learn from our mistakes?  Js it because we grow lazy when things go well and fail to obey every word of God?  Yes, but what is the underlying cause?  Is it because we fail to fully obey even when we repent and return to God?  Is it because we never really and truly fully obey God? 

Is our continual failure a consequence of our dependence on our churches?  Is going to church insufficient?  Yes, it is most truly insufficient!  There is no room for a clergy class in God’s plan for the development of God’s people.  It is an invention that shifts the burden of responsibility from the individual to the clergy.  There was no clergy class in the early Christian communities.  These communities, of perhaps 10 – 12 families each, were on their own most of the time.  The burden of teaching rested on every believer.  Elders taught the entire community but everyone had someone he or she could and should teach.

God intends that every believer be a teacher, one that studies His Word diligently and teaches others whenever there is an opportunity.  Why then do so few teach?  It is because God’s people have neglected their earlier practice of serious Bible study and have grown so weak that Satan could deceive them with what should have been an obvious lie, a lie that says God changed His mind, an utter impossibility.  God knows the end from the beginning and never needs to change His mind (Malachi 3:6).