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Wholehearted Obedience 
By Mae Shurow 

God requires wholehearted obedience to His will.   

• Ephes. 6:5-6 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; 6Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

• Col. 3:22-23 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: 23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, [out of] as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Singleness (572) “with pure hearts.  The series of derived meanings are: open, without ulterior motive, unambiguously, wholeheartedly” (^[1]Theological Dictionary NT, 1964, Vol. 1, p.387).

• 1 Cor. 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
• Deut. 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
• Deut. 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
• Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Zodhiates (2000) says, “Hosea 6:6 is the climax of Hosea’s theology, emphasizing man’s most important responsibility:  no matter what outward or physical accomplishments are achieved, God is concerned with the attitude of the heart.  He desires that an individual’s total being be involved in the pursuit of the knowledge of God” (Zodhiates, 2000, #2617).   

Mercy means “kindness, love or mercy. LOYAL LOVE” (Zodhiates, 2000, #2617).  This is the word translated as steadfast love, everlasting love, unfailing love. 

Joyful obedience can only come out of a heart full of love! 
When we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will GLADLY do what He asks!  It will not be a chore, but a PLEASURE!  Our hearts will leap at the chance to show Him our love and loyalty.  We will not want to disappoint our Lord—the very thought of not being pleasing to Him will break our hearts.  We will LONG to be beautiful in His sight and pleasing to Him! 

Our Lord is to be our Treasure.  He is to be our portion in the land of the living.  He is to be our ALL—Friend, Lover, Husband, Father, Mother, Son, Brother, and Sister.  Without Him we would shrivel and die—life would not be worth the living!

• Psalm 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

• Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
• Job 22:26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
• Isaiah 58:13-14 …and [thou] shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord…
• Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

We can’t even begin to love Him as He requires, but He wills and works His good pleasure in us…

• Ephes. 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

• Philip. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. [God is producing is us both to will (a desire) and to do (actually accomplish) what will please Him.]

• Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21Make you perfect [equip you]  in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Perfect, meaning “to make a perfect fit, suitable, such as one should be, deficient in no part” (Zodhiates, 2000, #2675). 

 And gives grace sufficient for obedience.

• Ezekiel 36:26-27 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

• Jeremiah 32:38-40 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: 39And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: 40And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
• Romans 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 

I) Grace, “Charis, when received by faith, transforms man and causes him to love and to seek after the righteousness of God. Charis is initially regeneration, the work of the Holy Spirit in which spiritual life is given to man and by which his nature is brought under the dominion of righteousness. The maintenance of this condition requires an unbroken and immense supply of grace. Grace remains constant in, and basic to, a believer’s fight without against the devil and his struggle within against sin” (Zodhiates, 2000, #5485).

“The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life;” (^[2]Strong, 1996, #5485).

By His grace, God gives us the ability to love Him! 

But we can fail to use the grace provided…

• Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God…

• Hebrews 2:1-4 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
  

Disobedience to His will is very simply caused by loving and seeking to please someone other than God.  When we disobey, it is because our heart has went after another god!

• Deut. 4:23-24 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. 24For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
• Hosea 1:2 …for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
• Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
• Galatians 1:10 …do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
• 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
• 1 Tim. 6:17 Charge them that are rich [happy] in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
• Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

        Hate is “equivalent to not loving, to slight, to despise,” (Zodhiates,
              2000, #3404).

        Hold to (472) means “BE LOYAL TO” “hold fast to a particular belief,
              with the implication of acting accordingly” (^[3]Louw, 1996, Ln.
              31.49).

        Despise means “to neglect, not to care for” (Zodhiates, 2000, #2706).
              “disparage, [to lower in rank or reputation: degrade] to regard
              in unseemly fashion, not to be concerned about, not to fear”
              (¹Theological Dictionary NT, 1964, Vol. 3, p. 631). It is not
              regarding God as God!  (See Romans 1: 21-25)

        Mammon (3126) is “most likely comes from that in which one trusts. 
              Resources, not merely    money, but anything of value.  The
              earthly property which man gathers in which he erroneously seeks
              security, to which he gives his heart.  The righteous must
              resolutely break free from this entanglement and stand in
              exclusive religious dependence on God” (¹Theological Dictionary
              NT, Vol. 4, p. 388).  

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, [“Affection means the soul’s diseased condition out of which the various lusts spring” (Zodhiates, 2000, #3806).] evil concupiscence [desires for other things], and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: Col. 3:1-6

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*All emphasis  mine.

Copyright ©2005 by Mae Shurow 
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provided proper citation of authorship is included.