Actes 5:29

We ought to obey God rather than man.

Ought

The word “ought” is but an old past form of the verb “owe”; it is, in fact, but another spelling of “owed.” What, therefore, we ought to do, we owed to do; what we ought to be, are owed to be. To God we owe our lives; we ought to pay Him with our lives. What we owe to our fellow-man, is that which we owe it to God to do for an honoured creature of God. We ought to do it because we owe to do it. And yet we go on saying we ought to do and we ought to be, never thinking that what we ought we owe, and that what we owe we do not pay! (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

Ought

is the word which sets forth the sense of duty. It differs from all the other words of the language save those of cognate meaning--a word without moods, tenses, conjugation, above time, space, and circumstance, a word like eternity, perfect and complete in itself. Ought! Whence came it? Not from time, for it is not subject to the laws of time as other words; it is a stray word from eternity. In virtue of this word, the central word of conscience, man is in eternity, and eternity is in man. This word “ought,” or, if you like, the truth which this word symbolises, the momentous truth of duty and obligation, is a “great light” hung up in the sky of the soul for ever; and however bright the lustre of the sun in the material firmament of the senses, it pales by the side of the exceeding brightness of the “great light which rules the day” in the inner heavens of the spirit. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

Obedience to God

I. Its necessity.

1. Commanded (Deutéronome 13:4; Deutéronome 10:12).

2. The condition of acceptance with God (Exode 19:5; Jérémie 7:23).

3. The condition of securing God’s help (Exode 23:22; Deutéronome 7:9).

4. Expected of God’s people (Deutéronome 27:9).

5. More than burnt-offerings (1 Samuel 15:22).

6. A fit return for God’s mercies (1 Samuel 15:24).

7. Must obey God rather than man (Actes 4:19; Actes 5:29).

8. Exhorted (Jérémie 26:13; Jérémie 38:20).

9. A proof of friendship to Christ (Jean 15:14).

II. What it includes.

1. Obeying God’s voice (Exode 19:5; Jérémie 7:23).

2. Obeying God’s law (Josué 1:7; Ésaïe 42:24).

3. Bringing every thought into obedience to Christ (2 Corinthiens 10:5).

4. Obeying the gospel (Romains 1:5; Romains 6:17; Romains 10:16).

5. Keeping God’s commandments (Ecclésiaste 12:13).

III. How to be rendered. Should be--

1. From the heart (Deutéronome 11:13; Romains 6:1).

2. Willingly (Psaume 18:44; Ésaïe 1:19).

3. Faithfully (Josué 22:2).

4. Undeviating (Deutéronome 28:14).

5. Constantly (Philippiens 2:12).

IV. Motives to.

1. Promises to (Exo 23:22; 1 Samuel 12:14; Ésaïe 1:19).

2. Blessedness of (Deutéronome 11:27; Deutéronome 28:1; Luc 11:28; Jaques 1:5).

3. Disobedience punished (Deutéronome 11:28; Deutéronome 28:15; Josué 5:6; Ésaïe 1:20). (S. S. Times.)

Obedience to God

The proposition is one which receives an unanimous assent. It is a truth seen by intuition. If there be a God, and He has any will respecting our conduct, we ought to obey Him. We owe Him obedience on every account. He is our Maker, Proprietor, Benefactor, and a Being infinitely perfect, incapable of willing anything inconsistent with the strictest rectitude. We ought to obey Him. Ought we! Then why have we disobeyed Him? Out of thy own mouth will lie judge and condemn us. But since there are mistakes as to what obedience is and is not, let us--

I. Draw some distinctions.

1. The mere doing of what God commands does not constitute obedience, unless we also abstain from what He forbids. Negative precepts are as obligatory as positive precepts.

2. Obedience must be universal. It must not only have respect to all that is forbidden and required. The same reasons exist why we should be conformed to the whole will as to any part of the will of God. If, therefore, any one disobeys God in any respect, he forfeits the character of obedience; and hence it is written, “cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.”

3. To obey God is not simply to act according to His will, but because it is His will. An accidental conformity of the will of man to the will of God is not obedience. It must be intentional. An atheist may do what God requires, but you would not therefore say that he obeys God. A man may do some things which God requires from some inferior consideration. Thus some are scrupulously honest, because dishonesty is disgraceful, or an inherent principle of integrity, and not out of regard to the Supreme Lawgiver. The very same elements go into the constitution of filial obedience. A dutiful son is one who does what his parent instructs, not because it falls in with his own inclination, or because he is to gain anything by it, but out of regard to the will of his parent. It is apparent, then, that there may be a great deal of morality and right acting among men where there is no obedience to God.

4. A doing according to God’s will, out of a regard to God, does not alone constitute obedience. It depends on the nature of the regard. The regard may be servile--dread of the effects of God’s displeasure at disobedience. It may be mercenary--expectation of reward for obedience. But the regard that is had to God in all acceptable obedience is the union of respect and love.

5. Obedience, to be acceptable, must be internal as well as external. External actions are really but the expression of obedience. In what is the law of God summarily comprehended but in a twofold exercise of the heart? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.” All pious and charitable acts must, in His account, pass for nothing, unless they are the expressions of love, the obedience of the heart

II. Characteristics of obedience. It must be--

1. Constant; not occasional and interrupted. There exist the same imperative reasons why God should be obeyed at all times, as at any time. And the love of God, the principle of obedience, is not a fitful and feverish excitement, but a regular and healthful pulsation.

2. Unconditional. We ought to obey God, whatever the difficulty, the circumstances, or the consequences. There is no power of dispensation. And yet how many exceptions are taken on the mere score of inconvenience--e.g., as regards the Sabbath law. And must the laws of the great and dreadful God, whose majesty is such that all nations are before Him as nothing, bend to human convenience? What! is it our duty to obey God only when it is convenient and agreeable, or when it does not seem to interfere with any of our secular interests?

3. Supreme and primary, and not subordinate and secondary. This obligation takes the precedence of every other. They must bend to it. It will bend to none. Whoever is disobeyed, God must be obeyed.

4. Immediately, without hesitation. Delay is disobedience, even though it should be accompanied with the determination to obey hereafter. Is God’s law fulfilled by good resolutions and dutiful purposes?

5. Unquestioning. We have no right to ask the reason of His commands, or their utility. It is enough that He commands. Some little Sunday-school girls were questioned in reference to the petition, “Thy will be done,” etc. “How do angels in heaven do it?” “Immediately,” said one; “actively,” said another; “unitedly,” replied a third; and then there was a pause, when one little girl said ‘“without asking any questions.”

6. Submission. The reasons for obedience to God’s perceptive will are the same as those for submission to His providential will. “Thy will be done,” means “be Thy purposes accomplished, as well as be Thy commands obeyed.”

7. Sinlessness is necessary to the perfection of obedience, but not to its reality. Yet the desire and prayer, and aim and effort, and struggle to be free from it is. (W. Nevins, D. D.)

Three classes of people

I. The spirit of the believer. This is shown in the conduct of the disciples under persecution.

1. A working spirit. As soon as set free, they are found in the temple at work for Christ.

2. A conscientious spirit. “We ought “is the principle controlling their conduct.

3. A witnessing spirit. Notice how strong and how clear is their testimony (Actes 5:30).

4. A rejoicing spirit (Actes 5:41). They were glad at the privilege of suffering for their Master’s cause.

II. The spirit of the unbeliever. Notice how this stands in marked contrast with the believer’s spirit.

1. There is the fear of men (Actes 5:26). While the apostles are fearless of popular opinion, their persecutors are fearful, and stand in awe of the people’s wrath.

2. There is hatred against the truth (Actes 5:28; Actes 5:33). These men were not sincere seekers after the truth. The truth was the particular object of their enmity.

3. There is the spirit of persecution (Actes 5:40). Either the disciples were right or they were wrong. If they were wrong, the priests’ party need have no rear--their cause would come to naught. If they were right, it was a crime to beat them. But to repress truth by violence has been the aim of persecution in all ages.

III. The spirit of indecision. This we observe in the counsel of Gamaliel. His plea may be interpreted as the utterance of a noble toleration or of an unprincipled expediency; perhaps both elements entered into it.

Obedience to God rather than man

A stern father one day, when he came home from his business, heard a noise as if some one were talking in his little boy’s room. He asked his wife what it was. She told him it was Johnnie praying. This made him angry. He told his little son, in a decided tone, that if he dared to do it again he must leave the house and find another home. Like Daniel, dear Johnnie knew all he must suffer; but he determined to keep on praying. The next day his father came home and found him praying again. He went at once to his little room, and in a gruff voice said, “Pack up your things and be off. I’ll not have any of your praying in my house. You shall not live with me.” And so the poor fellow packed up the little that was his, and took his bundle and walked downstairs to say “goodbye.” He went first to his mother and sister, and gave them the “good-bye” kiss; and then, with a full heart, he leaned over the cradle and pressed his quivering lips to those of the little one he loved so much. His mother stood by weeping. How could he part with her? At last, throwing his arms around her neck, and with tears in his eyes, he sobbed, “Good-bye, mother!” And then the little hero turned kindly to his stern father, and, holding out his hand, said, “Good-bye, father.” But the father could not bear it any longer. He could not keep the hot tears from his eyes. No, he could not, after all, drive away his noble boy. “Johnnie, you need not go now. Pray for me. I have been a wicked man to try to keep you from praying. I was wrong; you were right in praying. Oh, pray for reel” was all he could say. And Johnnie did pray. Yes, and the father prayed too. He became a converted man, and loved, with his family, to bow before the mercy-seat. (E. P. Hammond.)

Obedience to God in spite of danger

One Saturday there was a little boy named Jamie Brown pushing along the road on his way home. He had only travelled about a mile, when, at a turn of the road, three or four very wicked boys, who disliked him for going to church, and refusing to join them in mischief, came rushing out from a clump of trees with a fierce bull-dog, and said, “Brown, you must say the bad words we tell you before you go another step, or we’ll send the dog at you.” And then they began to swear, and speak the worst of words. Now there was one thing Jamie had learned at his mother’s fireside, and that was, that it was wrong to take God’s name in vain, and wrong to foul the tongue with bad words. But he simply said, “Let me go; I want to get home.” “Not one step farther,” said the biggest fellow, “until you say these words after me. Swear this oath, and we’ll let you go,” and he repeated wild and wicked words. “I dare not say that,” replied the boy; “and you have no right to ask me.” “Swear the oath this moment, or we will let slip the dog.” “I will not swear that oath; and you have no right to let slip the dog on me.” They gave him one more chance, and then let loose the dog. That night, as his mother and the other children sat round the fire, the brave boy told the rest of the adventure. It came into his head, as his savage persecutors were unloosing the dog, that God, who shut the mouths of the lions in the den where Daniel was, could shut the mouth of the fierce dog on that lonely road. And God did shut the mouth of the dog. The big, hulking scoundrels, more brutal than their dog, yelled it at the harmless boy. The dog barked furiously for a second or two, and went rushing up to him. But it neither bit nor offered to bite. And Jamie was delivered out of their hands. (N. T. Anecdotes.)