While they are two separate elements, obedience and faith are indivisibly entwined with one another. It is difficult to obey an authority if you do not have any trust in the authority. In fact, the greater your trust in the authority, the more likely you are to obey that authority when it commands you to do something – even if that something seems against your better moral judgment. Not properly assessing where your faith is can have disastrous impacts on how you implement your obedience. Consider the multitude of German citizens prior to World War II who trusted the Nazi powers and thus took part, either directly or indirectly, in ghastly Nazi evils during the holocaust. Or consider how easily the peoples of whole nations obeyed nonsensical and potentially dangerous commands without any questions during the COVID era as they tried to manage their fear of a viral infection by obliging the demands of the authorities they had been programmed from birth to trust. This is one of the reasons that God demands faith in him over faith in any other authorities. Early Christian leaders recognized the importance of that demand and exercised their trust in God over their fear of men (Acts 5:27-32). To have faith in God is to obey him in both action and attitude. If you believe that he is the supreme power of the universe, then you will have a natural respect for his commands. If you trust that he is perfectly good, and that he loves you, then you will obey him when he directs you to do something – even if that something seems crazy. This is because you will have faith that he has your absolute best interest at heart (Romans 8:28-29). Jesus models for us the greatest example of mature faith in God. His faith was so perfect that he obeyed God, even to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).
In his first New Testament letter, Peter obliquely addresses this interplay between faith and obedience. In 1 Peter 1:13-21, he argues that Christians should obey God and not the trappings of the ignorant desires they had before they were saved. He goes on to build the case that they should exhibit a reverent respect for God because they were bought with a ransom that was far more valuable and enduring than perishable silver or gold, and that whatever time they spend on Earth is, by nature, temporary. Peter is arguing that they should place their trust in things that are greater than what exists in the fallen world in which they live because there is an eternity they must eventually face.
Peter’s position can be applied to almost any earthly need or desire. When you take time to consider what you give to your faith community in terms of finances, ask yourself if you are giving out of a joyful trust that God will meet your needs and bless you in some way for your sacrifice, or are you giving out of a worldly desire to retain what you wrongly think you’ve earned all on your own? When you come to a fork in the road on your life’s journey and you must choose between two paths, do you make your choice based on fear, convenience, and economic utility, or do you choose based on an honest search of God’s biblically expressed desires? Do you seek to trust and obey God, or do you reflexively place your trust in worldly wisdom? Answers to these questions are profoundly important, because where you place your trust unequivocally influences how and who you obey.
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