Our habit is to think the best of ourselves. We give ourselves a pass more often than we like to admit and perhaps more often than we even realize. We think, “Well, at a minimum I meant to.” Or, “I did try really hard.” Or, “At least I started.” With these and countless other rationalizations we excuse ourselves for failing to thoroughly obey.
The honest evaluator knows that way of thinking doesn’t hold water. What parent credits a child for taking the trash most of the way to the bin or washing most of the dishes or vacuuming most of the floor? And what parent rewards the response, “Well, I meant to take the trash all the way out”?
This principle is on display in 1 Kings 13. In this account King Jeroboam builds an altar to tempt the people into worshipping false gods for his personal benefit. God handpicks a prophet to confront the king for his treachery. The man of God was sent to Bethel where he encounters Jeroboam preparing to make corrupt offerings. The obedient prophet boldly challenged the king with the words given by God. He warned the king that the very priests that worshipped at the altar will, themselves, be burned on it.
As you might expect, the king was furious and cried out for the immediate arrest of the prophet. However, God divinely protected the prophet by causing the hand the king used to initiate the command to wither instantly. The king acquiesced and the altar was torn down. When the task was complete, the king asked the prophet to pray to God to restore his hand. The prophet complied and the king’s hand was restored.
Seeing the power displayed through the prophet, King Jeroboam offered to celebrate the man in the palace with a meal and a reward. The prophet wisely declined, saying, “For so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.” God’s instruction was to leave without participating in even one meal in that place.
The prophet was boldly obedient in calling out the king’s sinful rebellion. In obedience he resisted the temptation of being the subject of public praise and the lure of material reward in the king’s house. He was even obedient to the command to return home using a different route. However, as he traveled a retired prophet chased him down and offered him refreshment at his house. The man of God declined the offer and recalled the Lord’s directive to “eat no bread and drink no water” until he returned home. The old prophet pressured him until God’s chosen man turned aside from his journey home and from full obedience to the Lord.
The prophet at the center of this story had done so much for God. He was obedient against such great odds! God exercised His power through the prophet’s obedience. As much as any person could ever be, this man was mostly obedient. What’s the worst that could happen to a guy that stopped to have some bread and water with a fellow prophet on the way out of town? The answer:
And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body (1 Kgs. 13:24). Indeed, mostly obedient is disobedient.
James 4:17 reads, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” The man of God, whether Old Testament prophet or New Testament Christian, does not get to claim credit for doing most of what he knows he should do. On the contrary, he accrues guilt for not doing what he knows he must. No one obeys God perfectly, but giving yourself a pass when you do not do what you know you should do is sin. Mostly obedient is disobedient.
Ask God to forgive you for being mostly obedient and then ask Him to give you the courage to be comprehensively obedient. No more passes for good intentions. Ask God to make you a finisher!