God Rather Than Man

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

                                                            Acts 5:29

In this section of Acts, Peter and the apostles are getting persecuted for continuing to preach the name of Jesus after the council had asked them not to. Peter then tells them that “We must obey God rather than men.” Peter and the apostles are more concerned with pleasing and obeying what God has asked them to do rather than obeying these men who have asked them to disobey God. Now clearly we know that God has asked us to obey the authority He has placed over us, but if this authority is asking you to disobey God and go against what He asks then we must put our love for God above that and disobey the authority. In Galatians 1:10 Paul says “Am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? For if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of God.” If I put my desire to please man above my desire to please the Lord, than I am disobeying God and that is not pleasing to Him. If I sought the approval of man in everything I did I would be a pretty messed up person honestly. I would constantly be telling people things I didn’t really mean and doing things for them just out of sympathy. But as we learned yesterday, obedience comes out of love. And because God should be my first love He should be the first one I obey. Whether that pleases those around me or not, it doesn’t matter. And to please the Lord I must seek after Him with all my heart and get to know Him and get to know how He would want me to be and what He would want me to do. Obedience is a choice and I pray that God would give me the wisdom I need to obey Him over man as I seek after Him and learn what He would have me to do.

Application- make a list of ways that God has asked me to obey Him in the past year.