My heavenly Father does not offer a “cafeteria plan” for obedience. I needed to respond to all of His instructions with an obedient spirit. I am not to merely pick and choose those that appeal to me.

Pat Ennis in Designing a Lifestyle that Pleases God, p.45

In keeping with my Spring Reading goals I’ve picked up Designing a Lifestyle that Pleases God, and when I read the above quote it stung because I know that I am tempted to do this. To heartily go after obedience in these areas and then when it comes to some I kind of just struggle and make excuses and tell people, “I’m working on it.” I was convicted. The book of James nails us on this many times, especially in chapter 2:8-11 where it says that there is no such thing as a “cafeteria plan” for God’s commands and then in chapter 4 we see so clearly that this wrong thinking about obedience cannot coexist with the truth of James 4:17!

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

I’m starting to hear people say that if someone challenges them to obey all of God’s Word that is legalism. They think that they can be a Christian and somehow be allowed to remain unchanged in the areas they choose and obey only the commands that are convenient for them. Then, if anyone says that I should be seeking to be fully obedient to God’s commands, that person is legalistic.

Last weekend, Pastor Mike was extremely helpful on this when he said “If you’re into keeping God’s commandments and telling other to do the same you will be called a legalist. That is not legalism. That is called, according to John 14:15 and 1 John 2, love! If you love God you will keep His commandments, what you are accusing me of is asking you to love God!”

When we talk about obeying all of God’s commands we don’t mean to earn salvation, we mean because of our salvation. Obedience is a response to salvation not a means to salvation.

How can I obey God in loving others but not being willing to forgive a wrong done against me. How can I obey God in His command for me to be faithful to my husband but then say I’m not willing to submit to my husband? This doesn’t even make sense. If we are going to obey God, we must obey all that He says. We can’t pick and choose. This is not up for a debate.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

John 14:15

After thinking through that quote from my book I re-listened to Pastor Mike’s sermon (which you can listen to by clicking here) and it was really helpful as I tried to list out commands I try to exempt myself from. I pulled our my notebook and wrote down commands that came to mind that I tend to cringe at. I also write down any ways I know that I try to bend the rules. For example, acting like gossiping about a certain person is valid at this time with this situation, right? Wrong! Just seeing that written down was a good exercise because it helped me brainstorm ways I need to go out and obey those commands today.

We need to have a joyful and eager attitude about obedience. I love it when I ask Tyler to do something and he responds with his little sing-song-voice, “Okay, Mommy.” We need to put the cafeteria trays away and just say “Okay, God!”