My wife and I sat down in the seats of an auditorium and noticed that the woman to the right had a small baby-stroller in front of her. I did a double-take when I noticed that the occupant of the stroller was not a baby, but a little fuzzy haired terrier. It was sitting quietly while its master patted and stroked its head. I thought it must be an old-tired dog, but when I asked the owner told me it was two years old. Hmm, I thought. Most young dogs would be frisking and squirming and maybe even barking. But this one had the privilege of sitting next to its master in a public auditorium because it was well-behaved.
Then I remembered my granddaughter. She often spends Saturday mornings with my wife while her father and I are at a men’s bible study. One Saturday after my son
had collected his daughter and took off I asked my wife how it went. “I can’t take her shopping with me anymore. She wouldn’t behave. She was begging me for this and that, and running off on her own. She just wouldn’t stay with me.” Hmm, I thought. Her unruliness cost her the joy and privilege of shopping with her grandmother.And then I thought about my own relationship with God, and I Peter 1:13-14 came to mind:
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13–16
Notice the anticipation: “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you.” We somehow have it in our minds that God requires obedience so that He can keep us under His thumb. But I think that is inaccurate. God says through Isaiah:
19If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
Isaiah 1:19
Intimate fellowship with Yahweh is for those who fear him,[i] and he makes known his covenant to them (Psa. 25:14)
14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:14–15
8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you. Psalm 32:8–9
The little dog was willing and obedient and it got to go with its master wherever she went. My granddaughter was willful and disobedient and she got left at home. Hmm.
