Obey

As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 11:27-28 NIV)

God's word isn't intended simply to be heard. It needs to be obeyed. This is the sticking point for most people. Whenever I have discussions with people about the existence of God, the inspiration of His Word, or doubts that they face, the real discussion is about this: obey. They can't believe that God is real, because that would mean they need to change something in their life. They can't believe that the Bible is inspired by God because of the chapters and verses that speak against their lives. What they miss is that God explains things out of love.

Let's say God wanted to explain gravity and the dangers of cliff. God might say something like this:
Whenever one finds the end of the ground upon which they walk, one should peer over the edge to see how far it is before the next ground. Should the drop be greater than ten cubits, do not jump from the one ground to the other. For when you hit the second ground, you will surely die.

You see, we listen to such a description and command and complain. "God doesn't understand science. If God understood science, he would tell us that our body will accelerate from the first ground toward the second at a rate of 21 1/3 cubits per second squared. It must not really be God." We say that "God is just trying to control my life. God doesn't understand how fun it is to jump and fall. God just wants to control my life and tell me not to do these things that are fun." We miss the fact that God is simply telling us not to jump off a cliff because God knows how He designed the world. Gravity will pull on us. We may enjoy the fall. But when we hit bottom, we will die.

And he continued, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)-- then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. (Mark 7:9-12 NIV)

Non-believers are not the only ones who do this to God's word. Believers do it to God all the time, too. We take what God said and "adjust" it to our "cultural context." Sometimes believers will remove passages they don't like with "really good reasons" from science or history. Others will leave it all in there, but reinterpret things in a way that it says something more palatable for our liking.

"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6 NIV)

Still others add to God's word with our own traditions. Then we make the traditions as important or more important than what God had to say. We nullify what God says for what we say. We set ourselves above God. Instead, we should obey God.

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." (Mark 7:13 NIV)

How about you? Do you believe God's word is God's word? Do you take God at His word? Do you try to subtract the things you don't like or add parts you want it to say? Or do you obey?