Preoccupied with Obedience
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin Overfield
Date: 23 Nov 2001
Preoccupied with Obedience
"And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the
priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And
one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud
voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him
thanks:
and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to
give glory to God, save this stranger." (Luke 17:14-18)
Jesus commanded the ten lepers to show themselves unto the priests. This
was required by Old Testament law whenever someone had recovered or
been healed of leprosy. I believe it is safe to assume here that Jesus
implied
that these lepers would be healed if they would only obediently and
believingly follow His instructions. While they obeyed and believed Him,
He healed them.
This is very illustrative of the basic principles of the kingdom of God:
obedience and faith go hand in hand. If we truly obey it is because we
truly believe; if we truly believe we implicitly and fully obey our Lord.
While this is not the main point of this Bible Note, it is of utmost
importance that we understand and follow such foundational truth.
The nine lepers who failed to "return thanks" to the Lord, were all the
while doing what He had told them to do. They were believing and obeying.
He had not told them to give thanks once they had realized their healing,
though it was indeed appropriate.
There are some things that are right to do and would greatly please the Lord
if we would only do them spontaneously -- of our own free will without
prompting. Some things we MAY do for the Lord without His direct,
specific command.
I have known of some who have failed to do anything for God, because they
were waiting for some specific command or revelation, when in reality there
was plenty of good they might do that is consistent with the general
commands and principles of God's Word -- and consistent with His holy
nature.
The nine lepers were in a sense preoccupied with obeying the Lord.
However, their obedience in doing just what Jesus had told them to do and
nothing more fell far short of the obedience coupled with thanksgiving on
the
part of the one leper who had returned to give thanks. To obey to the
letter
what the Lord commands is indeed right, good, and holy, but to obey
beyond the letter in a spirit of gratitude and in blessing God is true
spiritual
excellence!
I further notice that the one who gave thanks was a Samaritan. Jesus
Himself emphasized this point. This implies that the others were not
Samaritans. The nine most likely had a good heritage under the law of
Moses. They were probably more familiar with the things of God than this
Samaritan was.
Is it not the case with many of us today that we become so familiar with the
things of God and so busy or preoccupied with obedience that we offer very
little spontaneous thanksgiving to the Lord? Many times it is the outsider,
newcomer, or the "oddball" that is more expressive of gratitude to God for
the wonderful things He has done.
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!" (II Corinthians 9:15)
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
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