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Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
Episodes
Monday Sep 05, 2016
Monday Sep 05, 2016
If you work at a manufacturing facility, or a refinery, someplace that uses heavy machinery to make things, you know that accidents occur. These accidents are sometimes minor, and sometimes they are fatal on a large scale such as an explosion. When an accident occurs, there is usually an investigation, either internal or by a regulatory agency. One of the many tools that corporations use to get to the true cause of the accident is called the TapRoot® system. Now this is a tool that has been around for a while, and it has survived because it can be fairly effective in finding out the real cause of what happened. Almost with every incident there are two immediate reactions, there are those who claim to have no idea how it happened, and those who know exactly what the cause of the incident was. Both groups are usually wrong, and so the value of this tool is that it is an education for both groups in finding the true cause of the accident.
Essentially, you are walking back through various set questions that dig deeper into what caused the failure, was it training, was it equipment failure, was it a systematic problem, or was it a people problem. We know the effect; it is the accident that occurred. Our goal is to find the cause of the accident, correct it, and stop such accidents from occurring again. Now we know accidents, or failures, will continue to happen, it is almost impossible to eliminate them, but there is a way to stop the self-inflicted failures, the ones caused by something that we do, or fail to do.
In our lesson today, Peter is going to do something similar to this process with his discussion on the cause of a Christian facing suffering. We know the effect, it is suffering and persecution. Peter is going to help us understand the cause of that suffering. He is going to tell us that we cannot stop all suffering. In fact, some of our suffering is allowed by God to cleanse us and to make our faith stronger, but we can stop the self-inflicted suffering that we bring on ourselves by the things that we do, or fail to do.
Listen to this podcast to learn the cause and effect of the suffering we face as a believer.
Sunday Aug 28, 2016
Sunday Aug 28, 2016
Do you remember your parents telling you that a little bit of suffering will do you some good? Mine did, and their intent was that I should learn how to react to tough situations. My father would say things like, “Life is hard, and you need to be tough to get through it.” “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” “Iron sharpens iron.” The reaction of a person to hardships will say a lot about their character. If you want to succeed in the secular world, your reaction to suffering must be to get tough, to use suffering to build tenacity, and determination, as well as confidence in your ability to face hardships. You become more self-confident and less dependent on others.
This is the opposite of the reaction that God wants from His children. As a believer faces persecution, God wants them to become more dependent on Him, and less dependent on themselves. God knows our weaknesses better than we do, and He wants to use our weakness to bring glory to His name.
2 Cor 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
KJV
Paul says, “for when I am weak, then am I strong,” meaning I am strongest when I am leaning on God. So the answer to the question that I started the lesson with, How should a believer react to suffering, is they are to lean more on God.
What happens to our concern about persecution when we lean on God to carry us through persecution? Our concern becomes less and less the more we lean on God, and as my worry goes down, my heart is filled with joy in Christ. This is why Paul can say, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Rejoicing in being persecuted for Christ’s sake is the theme that Peter has for us in the last half of this chapter, but he doesn’t go there yet. First, he builds the foundation that a believer needs in order to truly be able to rejoice when persecution comes.
Listen to this podcast to learn how the believer can use prayer to connect them to the power of the Holy Spirit of God, and it this power, God’s power, that will carry you through persecution.
Tuesday Aug 23, 2016
Tuesday Aug 23, 2016
Last week we began this section on why we suffer for our faith. Peter has told us that we are in enemy territory, and we cannot expect to get through it unscathed. Jesus tells us that since He was persecuted even unto death, then His servants will be persecuted as well. But the wonderful good news of this chapter is that we can get through it victoriously, and in fact, God expects us to do just that. We are not to spend the rest of our lives giving way to our flesh or to our fears. We are to live in harmony with God's will, whatever that may be. We preach the gospel message of Christ because of the coming Great White Throne Judgment, where all of those who reject Christ will be judged. It is God’s desire that this gospel is preached to each person before they die, and if they don’t respond to the Gospel, then God makes it very clear that they are already dead in “trespasses and sins.” But if they accept Christ, they can then “live according to God in the Spirit.” The Bible repeats this message of death and life over and over again. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we pass from death to life.
John 5:24
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
KJV
Jesus is the resurrection, and the life. When we believe in Him, we are no longer dead, instead we have life.
John 11:25-26
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
KJV
We know that we are raised from the dead to walk in the newness of life.
Rom 6:4
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
KJV
Paul continues with this message in
Eph 2:5
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
KJV
In other words, before you and I were saved, we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were spiritually dead. Peter is saying the same thing here in this verse. The gospel is being preached, and when the gospel is being preached, two things happen. Some accept it, and if they accept it, they are going to live for God and live throughout eternity. Others reject it, and those who reject the gospel are the men who are dead in sins and are dead to God throughout eternity; that is, they have no relation to Him whatsoever.
The cause of suffering for a believer is the sinfulness of the world that we live in. We are not of this world, and because we stand against the sin of this world, we will be persecuted. We will have lies told about us. We will face judgment at the hands of the ones in leadership positions of this world. Peter did. Paul did. Jesus did. Therefore, we will also. The wonderful good news is that on the other side of the grave is a Savior with His hands outstretched saying “Welcome thou good and faithful servant.”
Listen to this podcast to learn the true cause of the suffering that a believer encounters as he stands for Christ.
Sunday Aug 14, 2016
Sunday Aug 14, 2016
A large part of this book has been addressed by Peter to people who are undergoing incredibly severe torture and death for their faith in Christ. It is easy to understand how people who are facing this type of constant persecution would be discouraged, even asking God why He is allowing this to occur. Peter understands this and he is writing this section of the letter to help them deal with it. So God has provided these lessons to us, as believers, in order to show us how we are to deal with the persecution that we face, in whatever form that it takes.
Christ has told us to expect persecution.
John 15:18-21
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
KJV
Peter dedicates this whole section to helping believers know why we are being persecuted for our faith in Christ, and how to deal with that persecution. Our faith is in Christ, and we know that our Lord will provide for our needs during this time. He will provide the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us, strengthen us, and encourage us. This is our faith. Christ will not fail us. The wonderful good news is that Jesus Christ is alive and enthroned at the right hand of God! It is an unfortunate fact that the history of mankind is full of monsters like Nero. They each have their day, but no matter how strong they are, no matter how evil they are, nothing they do can alter the fact that Jesus now sits on the supreme throne of the universe. The mystery of the suffering of God's people is a mystery as great as the mystery of iniquity. All we see down here are the seemingly tangled threads on the reverse side of the tapestry of life. When we get to heaven, we shall see the magnificent picture on its other side. Meanwhile, Christ is on the throne. That certain fact is the foundation of our promise, our hope, and our faith.
We are in enemy territory. We cannot expect to get through it unscathed. But we can get through it victoriously. God expects us to do just that. We are not to spend the rest of our lives giving way to our flesh or to our fears. We are to live in harmony with God's will, whatever that may be.
Why do we suffer? God says that He will use suffering in your life in order to keep you from sin, “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” This means that we no longer take life for granted, for we have suffered, and that God will use that suffering to keep us from sin.
Sunday Aug 07, 2016
Sunday Aug 07, 2016
Certainly, the best example we have of how to prepare ourselves to endure the suffering and persecution for our faith in Christ, is Christ Himself. Christ is not asking us to do anything that He Himself has not endured. In fact, the persecution and suffering that Christ endured was far greater than anything we can imagine. But there was a God-planned purpose in Christ coming to this world knowing that He would be persecuted even unto death, just as there is a God-planned purpose in our suffering as well. The fact that the Son of God entered into human life and became a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief is truly an awesome thing to consider.
1 Peter 3:18
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
KJV
This verse explains exactly what Christ did when He died on the cross. It tells us why Christ died and what the death of Christ does for man. It is so clear, that it leaves the reader without an excuse. Why did Christ have to suffer and die?
It was for the sins of all mankind that He died. Man is sinful, he stands guilty before God. Man has to be judged; he has to bear the punishment for his sins.
What is that punishment? Death and separation from God forever.
But this is the glorious gospel; this is the declaration of this great verse: Jesus Christ died for our sins. He took the sin and guilt of man upon Himself and bore the judgment and punishment for man. Note one other fact: Jesus died once for our sins. His death never has to be repeated. His death upon the cross satisfies God completely and covers the sins and death of believers forever. Notice carefully that I said believers. Christ died for the sins of all mankind so that the question is no longer have you sinned or not?
If you wish to have eternal life with Christ in heaven, the question is now, did you accept the free gift of grace that God has offered you by sending Christ to die in your place? Have you made Christ your Lord and Savior? Once you have said yes to this, then nobody can take your salvation away from you, and you cannot do anything to lose it. For if you could, Christ would have to die again for your sins to be forgiven.
Christ died so that he might bring us to God. It is our sin that separates us from God. It is our sin that makes us imperfect and unacceptable to God. But note the most wonderful truth, when Jesus Christ took our sin upon Himself, sin was removed from us. Therefore, as believers we stand before God in the righteousness and sinlessness of Christ. We are made righteous in Christ.
The vicarious atonement accomplished for us by Christ on Calvary's cross is the great God-planned reason for His sufferings.
Sunday Jul 31, 2016
Sunday Jul 31, 2016
How we face suffering and persecution is one of the defining characteristics of the Christian faith that sets us apart from the world. Let’s be honest, it is not hard to face the good times, when things are going your way, and when the people around you support your words and actions as they relate to living for Christ. Christians look at the source of those blessings differently than the rest of the world does, but how they react to them is very similar to everyone else.
Being persecuted for your faith comes in many forms, from simple disrespect on the part of someone you meet or the government that rules over us, to being excluded from something or somewhere, to serious physical harm to your body by torture, death, and imprisonment. All because we stand and identify ourselves as Christians and live our lives accordingly. The world reacts to these kinds of persecutions by saying “That’s not fair, I want justice!” They get angry, they march in violent protest, or they take the baker or the florist to court and have the government shut them down. We are going to learn in our lesson today that God wants His children to face this kind of suffering with joy in our hearts.
Now, my first reaction to suffering is often the same as the world’s, shouting “That’s not fair,” and wanting someone to do something about setting that injustice right. My thoughts run immediately to the fact that this nation was founded on Judaeo/Christian beliefs and the constitutional guarantee we have of freedom of religion. So where is my government that is to support me and defend me? Well, as we all know, that government has long gone and now believes that we are to be free from religion, instead having freedom of religion. They now willingly persecute Christians for saying what they believe. In many other countries, the government violently attacks and kills Christians for living a life for Christ.
The secular world turns to those around them, or to their own brand of religion, or the government for help. As a Christian we are to turn to God and say “Lord, what am I to learn from this,” or, “Lord, who am I to be witnessing to? Who do you have watching me to learn how a Christian faces persecution?” The truth is that not all suffering is a lesson for the believer, sometimes it is a lesson for the persecutor, and sometimes it is just the face of evil doing everything it can to destroy Christianity. Satan hates mankind, but he has a special hatred for Christians, and there are times that he uses evil people to do great harm to the people of God.
The difference between how a Christian faces persecution and all others comes from their personal relationship with, and their knowledge of, Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master. They know from personal experience that God is in control of all things. His hand of protection is around His children, and His Spirit is in the believer’s heart providing the strength, courage, faith, and hope, to deal with whatever Satan and the world can dish out. It is not easy, but the focus of the Christian is not to be on the short term of our lives on this earth, but on the eternity that we are going to have with Jesus Christ in heaven. That is our promise from our Lord, and that is the reason we can face persecution and suffering with a God-given joy in our heart. That is the defining difference in how a Christian faces persecution. This is what sets us apart from the world. This is what identifies us with our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. We have the promises of the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, in our hearts.
Listen to today’s podcast to learn how a Christian is to face persecution.
Sunday Jul 24, 2016
Sunday Jul 24, 2016
When I chose the title to this lesson, I decided to do an internet search on the phrase, The keys to a happy life. If you can imagine, there were lots of people out there who are ready to tell you what the keys to a happy life are. I saw titles like, 14 keys to a happy life, 10 keys to happier living, 21 keys to a happy life, and one from Psychology Today saying The key to living a happy life today. As I looked at these my first thought was that for there to be so many results in this internet search, there must be a lot of people looking for happiness. That may seem obvious, and I didn’t need to an internet search to know that this was true, it was just a confirmation of my thoughts. Happiness, true happiness, can be elusive in this secular world that we live in.
The thing that all of these sites had in common was that it hinged on you, how you thought about events, what you focused your thoughts on, how you were to let the less important things go by and not worry about them. Living for the “now” as one site put it. It was all about you, and what you could do for yourself. You were in control of your happiness, and I am not going to deny that some of this is true, we are in control of how we deal with life’s tragedies. But the wonderful thing about being a Christian is that we don’t have to face life alone. We have the Holy Spirit of God living within us. We have His power to depend on. We have His wisdom to guide us, and we have His love and joy to fill our lives with true happiness. Yet, many Christians totally ignore this benefit, and look to the secular world for their happiness. If I were to be able to see the hits on those search results, I would bet you find just as many Christians looking at them as you do non-Christians.
Let me tell you something really important here, they are all looking in the wrong place. There is no true, eternal, happiness away from God. He alone can give us the type of joy that overwhelms us. We just have to look to Him for that happiness which already exists within us. The wonderful good news is that we already have the key to happiness within us, we just have to activate it. So in today’s lesson we are going to close out this section on how a Christian is to live a life of submission to the various authorities and laws with the goals of glorifying God and winning others to Christ, and then we are going to talk about God’s five keys to a believer’s happy life. I say a believer’s happy life, for it is only the believer that has the Holy Spirit of God living within them.
How many men and women today, who are involved in living for the things of this world, suddenly wake up and find that it’s not worth it? Life is monotonous, and life is not worth it. No wonder they commit suicide in growing numbers every day. It is not until you come into a right relationship with God that you can live life to its fullest, and find the happiness that we all seek after.
Sunday Jul 17, 2016
Sunday Jul 17, 2016
The institution of marriage, as it was created by God, is a wonderful thing. It is defined in the Bible as one man and one woman choosing to love God first and then each other next. They work together to accomplish the will of God in their lives. They are true yokemates working together to please God. Marriage is something which God has given to the entire human family, not just to Christians or to the nation Israel. In the Book of Genesis, we are told that God made man and at that time man was alone. I think the Lord let Adam be alone for a long time to let him know he was missing something. Then Scripture says that God took man and from man He made woman. Using the Hebrew words, Genesis 2:23 reads, She shall be called Isha, because she was taken out of Ish. She is called … an help meet for him (Gen. 2:18); that is, a help that was fit for him. In other words, she was to be the other half of him. He was only half a man, and she was to be the other part of him.
In God’s blueprint for marriage, He has assigned roles for both the wife and the husband. A godly wife was a woman who has a healthy fear and respect of God. A woman who is obedient to God’s will for her life. A woman who seeks to fit into the needs of her husband as they work together to accomplish the tasks that God has assigned to them. She is also a woman who is submissive to her husband. Now, when Peter says to the wives, Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, it absolutely does not mean that the wife is to be a slave to her husband. The Bible does not teach that in any form or way. What is does teach is that a woman is to make a voluntary choice to be submissive to her husband because of her love for God. The Christian wife, in obedience to her Lord, subjects herself to her husband’s leadership, authority, and control. She does this because she fears God, because she loves God, and her duty, just like the husband’s, is to be obedient to God’s will for her life.
Now, this is important to understand, none of this means that men are superior to women or that women are inferior to men. They have simply agreed to work together with the husband leading. In the marriage relationship, it simply means that God insists on order in the home. To establish that order, He assigns the respective roles to the husband and the wife. There cannot be two captains on a ship; neither can there be two people at the helm in the home.
Godly husbands are to be considerate of their wives. Men are not to ride roughshod over their wives, bossing and bullying them, ordering them around, letting them do hard labor which is beyond their strength, or making unreasonable demands upon them. Peter says that godly husbands and wives are heirs together of the grace of life. This means you both are co-heirs of God’s grace. You both are saved from your sin. You both are joint heirs with Christ. You both are adopted children of God. You both have been granted eternal life by God’s grace. The husband and the wife are partners. They must work together. They have something more than marriage vows to bond them together. They have Christ. They are heirs together of God's gracious gift of everlasting life. They are true yokemates. They should work together to establish a Christian home, to bring up children in the ways of the Lord, to provide a measure of stability to a community, and to be the moral and spiritual backbone of the nation.
A godly husband is to dwell with them according to knowledge. For a husband to deal with his wife in the way that God wants him to do, the husband must know and understand several things. First, he must know God’s desire for the marriage relationship. This means he knows what marriage is and what it is to be in the eyes of God. Next, he must know his wife. This means he knows her nature and emotional makeup, what she needs and wants emotionally and spiritually, her strengths and her weaknesses. He must also know the word of God. You cannot be the spiritual leader of your home if you do not know what God says in His Word. The husband has the responsibility to guide the family in the will of God. In order to do this, the husband must know the Word of God. It is amazing how easy it is for a wife to submit herself to a husband that is who and what God says he is supposed to be.
With that in mind, you can see that the marriage relationship is not to be one of a man insisting on treating his wife like a little child who has to jump every time he says so. She is there to help him. She is there to be a part of him. She is there to love him. And he is there to love her, guide her in the ways of God, and protect her. That is God’s desire for the relationship of a man and woman in marriage. This is how a husband is to treat his wife, and this is how a wife is to treat her husband. They both do this because they love God first, and then each other next.
Listen to this podcast to learn what God defines as a godly marriage.
Sunday Jun 19, 2016
Sunday Jun 19, 2016
How many people do you know that would suffer gruesome torture and death for you? I would suspect not many, if there was anyone at all. Yet, Christ suffered for us, and the truth is that we don’t even really understand the magnitude of the suffering Christ endured for each of us and for mankind in general.
When we think of Christ, it is generally after He came to live among us. We think of the baby Jesus, the man Jesus, the miracle worker Jesus, the teacher Jesus, and the Jesus that died on the cross, who was buried and rose again. We think of Jesus as we see Him portrayed in movies and TV, as a Man. As believers, we also think of Him in His risen and resurrected glory. This is the Jesus we normally think of. But that is a very limited view of our Lord. Jesus Christ was much more than that.
I love the description that John Phillips gives of who the Lord Jesus really is. I am paraphrasing here, but he says that the Bible gives us a picture of who the Lord Jesus was way back before time ever began, dwelling in a light unapproachable and living in perfect harmony with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in unimaginable glory. He was uncreated, self-existing, coeternal, coequal, and coexistent with the Father and the Spirit. He was, and is, God the Son, the second person of the triune Godhead. His wisdom was infinite, His love fathomless, and His power without measure or end. His nature and attributes were those of the living God. He basked in the sunshine of the Father's love in endless delight. Eternal ages rolled by without end. All was love, joy, and peace, beyond all imagination or thought. And then, in the council chambers of eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit agreed that They would act in creation. The Son was the active agent.
Col 1:16
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
KJV
All things were created by Him. John tells us the same thing.
John 1:1-3
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
KJV
The Son put forth His wisdom and His power, and hosts of angels appeared, rank upon rank. Galaxies of stars sprang into being and filled space with billions of centers of light. Planet Earth, a bright blue sphere in the Milky Way, was chosen to be the home of man. Life, in a countless variety of forms, appeared at His command. Man was created and became another exhibit of the Son’s wisdom and power.
This is the One who willingly chose to step down from His throne in heaven and come to earth as God incarnate in man in order to suffer for us because sin raised its head in the universe and was transplanted to Earth. Adam fell. Sin entered, and death by sin. Now the Creator must become the Christ. Prophet after prophet arose to foretell the coming of a Kinsman-Redeemer, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.
So God's Son became the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, the Seed of David. He was to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He was the Child born and the Son given. He was called the Wonderful Counselor, the Father of eternity, the Mighty God, the Prince of peace.
He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, the Lord's Anointed, Prophet, Priest, and King. Page after page of the Old Testament told the story. Book after book was written, all about Him. Detail added to detail increased the wonder of it all. He stood apart from all others, robed in majesty, the altogether lovely One, and the chiefest among ten thousand, the One who suffered for us.
Peter saw it happen. He was an eyewitness of much of it. The suffering began when Jesus was but eight days old. He was circumcised. It was His first personal experience of pain. He grew up. He began His ministry. He suffered at the hands of the people He had come to save. He knew loneliness, rejection, and malicious hatred. His family disbelieved His claims. His disciples let Him down. Peter himself denied Him with oaths and curses, and Judas sold Him for a pocketful of change.
He wept His heart out in Gethsemane. He was falsely accused, beaten, and abused by His own people, then He was mocked, scourged, and crucified by the soldiers of Rome. He endured the torments of death on a cross. Finally, He was made sin for us and abandoned by God.
Peter says, Leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. As believers we are the apprentice and Christ is the Master Carpenter. He is our example of how to live the life of a victorious Christian. He is our example of how we are to react to suffering, living in a moment-by-moment cooperation with the indwelling Spirit of God.
Sunday Jun 12, 2016
Sunday Jun 12, 2016
But my boss is moody, unfair, unjust, corrupt, and just plain awful to me. You can’t be serious; do I really have to honor my boss?
In our lesson today, Peter will talk about how we treat those around us. The good people and the bad people. The popular people and the social misfits. Our brothers and sisters in Christ and those who have rejected Christ, and even those who we work for. God wants us to win others to Christ, that is our mission. We won’t do that if we treat people poorly, or if we are in an adversarial relationship with them. People respond to those who treat them with respect. You don’t have to like them, or what they stand for, or even what they have done to you or others, but you can still treat them with respect and honor.
I have a son who works as a prison guard in a maximum security prison. This is a place that houses the worst of the worst in our state penitentiary system. Some guards use their position of authority to abuse the prisoners and treat them with despite. The prisoners react to this treatment with violence and it endangers all of the guards and other prisoners. My son has learned that if you treat them with respect, always watchful for deception, that the prisoners will generally respond with obedience and a level of respect in return. This is not to say that the prisoners would not harm you in a blink of an eye, but people, even really bad people, respond to being treated with respect.
God wants His ambassadors to be seen as law abiding, caring people, who treat others with respect, even in the face of persecution.
Peter says that we are to do this, For so is the will of God. This is not optional. To do otherwise is to be out of God's will. Our first priority is unto God. This applies to all of our relationships.
Sounds a lot like what my father told me, and what I told my own kids. There are just times that a parent must say to their child, I want you to do this, because I said so. I don’t have to explain myself, just do it because I want you to.
Now, fortunately, God is in the process of giving us a further explanation for His command to obey, but He starts out with, you are to do this because it is my will for you. Pretty simple. So simple, even I can understand it. Be obedient to the laws of man, or be out of God’s will. My dad would expect my response to such a statement from him to be, yes, sir. God expects the same thing.