To obey is better than sacrifice. 1 Sam. 15:22.

I read once that some poisons such as arsenic can, under certain conditions, serve a medicinal function. But not so with disobedience. It has no virtue whatsoever. It takes the course of our lives entirely away from God.

Christians are to live a different kind of life than non-Christians. We ought not to allow the spirit of disobedience to stamp and mold our lives. We are to bear the stamp of Christ's likeness. We are to take seriously our right relationship to God and to His commandments. A will that is contrary to God's law can only destroy us at last.

The followers of Satan are termed "children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). The unconverted and unsanctified are geared to a warped idea of freedom from obedience to the will of God. The result is moral and spiritual deterioration. Men become less and less capable of seeing the truth and walking in it. They become full of hearing the Word of God. They find it increasingly difficult to clear the moral and spiritual air and return to the truth of God.

Christ strictly obeyed His heavenly Father and kept His commandments. The presence of Christ in our lives is always a power to obey and never to disobey. At the very heart of the gospel there lies not only the invitation to come to Christ but also a summons to obedience.

We choose the powers that make our lives. God has provided everything we need in the gospel, in His Son, and in His Word in order to live a life of obedience. God leaves us alone with our sinning, but He provides us with all the resources of heaven for righteous living. We are to set ourselves right down on God's side.

God does not allow us to tamper with truth in order to win our freedom. We do not beg God to make compromises and exceptions in our case because we are determined to go our own way. The God who still rules over our broken world waits longingly and earnestly for us to say Yes to Him. He has left us no other way.