Disobedience or rebellion against God is a sinful act that the Bible has plenty to say about. In fact, we are in the huge mess we find ourselves in today because of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience.
First, the Word of God defines sin as transgression of the law of God according to (1 John 3:4) along with rebellion against God according to (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18).
Sin is based entirely on plain disobedience or rebellion. Disobedience is refusing to do what God has commanded, or doing what God has forbidden.
With this in mind, Satan is the author of disobedience.
The Danger Of Disobedience
Disobedience is very consequential by nature. In many cases, it ends up costing people far more than they’ve ever thought.
The consequences of disobedience are plain all throughout Scripture from the book of Genesis to Revelation.
Even today, we are witnessing before our own eyes how people’s lives are being destroyed through immorality, crimes, and other sinful activities.
Indeed, God has a reason that He allowed all these negative things to be recorded in His holy Word because of sin.
He wants us to be able to learn from the horrible mistakes that various people had made in the past by disobeying Him so that we don’t keep on repeating the same costly mistakes over and over again.
It’s for our own good that these things are recorded because God in His love for us wants to protect us from the ugly consequences of rebelling against Him because to disobey Him is to willingly choose to walk in the will of Satan, thus walking out of God’s protection.
Consequently, we really have to take these teachable lessons found in the Bible and learn them well.
The reason is that we are going to be facing similar situations through which we will be tempted to make the exact same mistakes that disobedient or rebellious individuals had made.
God’s will is for us is to remain obedient to Him by keeping His Word, so that we can peacefully and joyfully enjoy all of His many blessings through Christ.
Disobedience Walks Hand in Hand With Consequences
Disobedience brings a wide variety of horrible consequences such as spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental consequences.
Spiritual consequence relates to separation from God and union with Satan. It’s the worst form of consequence that can ever fall upon people since it determines where they will spend their eternity.
Physical consequences relate to bad things that can happen to us physically or our lives that can be ended so tragically.
Emotional consequences relate to sadness and hurts disobedience can bring to our lives. Disobedience can ruin the very person God wants us to be.
Moreover, disobedience can inflict so much emotional pains on us to the extent that we become a slave to bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, and so forth.
And mental consequences have to do with the fact that sin burdens the conscience of men. It corrupts and cripples people’s judgment. It has a strong hold on the memory, and fetter the free will.
Consequently, there’s no genuine peace for those who are living in sin no matter what they may say.
Let’s look at that Scripture found in (Galatians 6:7) which states “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
Life is a matter of reaping what you sow. So oftentimes we reap far more than what we’ve sowed.
Despite everything that sin has to offer, the deceptive pleasures that we may experience are not worth the price that we have to pay eventually. Sin is very controlling, powerful, and deceptive by nature.
Besides, it literally blinds men to such a degree that causes them to lose all their capabilities to think the right way about the consequences that come along with their sinful lifestyles.
Many times, people finally get an idea of how terrible their lives have been when finding themselves in the midst of a disaster.
Sin pretty much draws them further away from God who is the source of truth that could have opened their eyes, and kept them from destruction.
One thing about disobedience is that it has massive implication because oftentimes the person who breaks God’s laws is not the only one who ends up paying the price.
Therefore, the choice that we make can affect people around us either directly or indirectly in a big way. Our disobedience to God can significantly affect our ability to witnesss to others about Christ.
God in all His holiness and righteousness hates disobedience. In fact, we will never be able to fully comprehend to which extent that God hates disobedience.
If a sinner can be sent to hell for all eternity, this clearly demonstrates God’s full hatred toward disobedience. Most importantly, God has never taken people’s rebellion against Him lightly.
The devil is fully aware of God’s complete hatred toward disobedience since he’d been with God. Therefore, he knows what God loves and hates.
That’s the main reason he is always devising plan to keep us from remaining obedient to God. He is always trying to influence our behavior in a wide variety of ways.
Thus the choices that we make determine who get to control our lives.
Disobedience Is Disrespectful To God
As already mentioned, sin which a product of disobedience is a deliberate contemptuous act against God of infinite goodness. In other words, sin is an act that dishonors God. Let’s say that you command your child to do something, and somehow he or she rebels against you how would you feel as parent?
When we disobey God, the message we convey is that His Word is not important to us; we’ll simply do what we want to do regardless of what His Word says concerning our choices. These kind of evil tendencies really create an environment God can no longer operate into our lives. We literally kick Him out of our life, so that can get our ways. Our sinful attitudes literally quench the Holy Spirit. Bear in mind, whenever God is dishonored, someone else receives the honor, and that person is Satan.
When we’re tempted we are well aware that what we’re planning on doing is not going to please God, but we do it anyway. Sin hardens people’s heart and makes them very selfish because it’s all about what they want. Furthermore, it’s all about engaging in sinful activities in order to please themselves instead of pleasing God. Although, sin may bring some temporary pleasures; however, the price to pay is always catastrophic.
When we are living in sin, there is no doubt about that, we are out of control as a result, which then renders us useless in the eyes of God. In addition, we give Satan the opportunity to dominate every aspect of our lives, and to hold us captive as long as he can, so that we can lose everything that God has in store for us. Consequently, we lose our spiritual appetites, and we become disengaged as well in the things of God.
We can no longer serve God, and we can no longer worship Him in the beauty of holiness. We don’t even appreciate the fact that our soul is valuable, and we no longer care about other people’s spiritual lives either. The question is how can we care about others’ spiritual lives while we don’t even care about ours by the way we choose to live?
God’s Love Is Infinitely Greater Than Our Disobedience.
It’s unmistakably clear that God does hate sin up to core; however, He loves sinners. So what really makes us detestable and unacceptable in the eyes of God is not because we are sinner, it is because of sins in our lives. It’s because of a sinful disposition that we have within us which arouses us to continue to do the very things that God hates.
Think about that for a while, it’s true that God loves the sinner; however, that sinner is liable to respond to that love being extended to him through grace. How can that happen? By taking full responsibility for his sins through the means of coming to God, so that his sins can be forgiven based on what Jesus did on the cross. Otherwise, that sinner will certainly die in his sins which equate to eternal damnation.
The good news is that God certainly admires when a sinner is honest with himself by willing to acknowledge his sinfulness by confessing his sins to Him. Nothing pleases and glorifies God more than when a sinner comes to Him with a broken and contrite heart concerning his sinfulness. God gives us His Word in order to protect us from the terrible consequences of disobedience, but oftentimes we conduct ourselves as if we know better than He does.
God wants to save us, gives us peace and joy while the enemy wants to do the exact opposite. In many cases, we have a strong tendency to follow the deception that the enemy is throwing our way because he offers us what we want now, which appeals to what our sinful nature desires.
Conclusion
As people whom God deeply cares about, He wants us to deal with disobedience wisely. Remember, nobody can ever please God while living in rebellion.
Rebelling against Him is equivalent to rejecting Him and His Word. When we want to sin against Him for the sake of sinful pleasures or obtaining something outside of His perfect will, we tend to shift our entire focus away from the consequences that may come with the bad choices we’re about to make by believing somehow we are above them.
And we also tend to somehow ignore the fact that we could be struck at just any moment. Unsurprisingly, this is the typical tendency that people who want to indulge into sin always have.
It’s undoubtedly clear that there are horrible situations people find themselves in due to poor choices they’ve made over the course of their lives if they had known with full certainty that’s exactly what was going to happen at some point, they would have changed their minds.
Thinking that certain things cannot happen to us will not alter the obvious reality that disobedience always brings consequences. Sin wouldn’t be so attractive if the wages were paid immediately.