Obedience
I heard a story about a patient at Children’s Hospital who had quite a reputation with the nurses and staff for being unruly. This boy was Trouble, with a capital T! One day the hospital chaplain who knew about the boy’s behavior made him a deal: The chaplain said, “If you are good for a week, I’ll give you ten dollars when I come back. Deal? “ A week passed. The chaplain stood before the boy’s bed. The chaplain said. “I am big on honesty so I won’t check with the nurses to see if you behaved. You must tell me yourself. Do you deserve this ten dollar bill?”
After a couple of moment’s pause, the little boy said, “Well. Just give me a dollar, and we’ll call it even!”
In today’s verse the Apostle Paul begins his instruction of the discipline that believers must have in order to live under authority. Paul starts at the foundation. The preparation of living out a life under authority begins in home as a child-not in the church or in school but in the home. One of the problems facing believers today is that they were not properly trained in the home. Proper training is DISCIPLINE!
The first lesson a believer learns is obedience under those in spiritual authority. After a believer learns to obey, then that believer is in a position to have authority over others. The basic training for leading others is the training received in obedience under the authority of parents. Without this training, many Christ followers struggle to live in obedience to God. They fail in spiritual obedience, often because they were not taught as children how to obey in the home.
I have a friend who is a recruiter for the Marine Corps. He says that it is getting increasingly difficult to fill the recruitment demands. This is not simply because the US is in two wars or because the Marine Corps involvement in military action and commitment is extremely volatile. In fact, there are more than enough applicants each month to meet the Marine’s demand for recruits. The problem is the applicants themselves. According to my Marine friend, applicants today are rejected because of previous criminal records and because of personality, psychological, or health problems. In addition, there are an alarming number of enlistees that fail to measure up to recruit training. My friend said, “It’s not that they are too weak, or not fit enough to handle the training; Marine Corps Boot Camp can take care of that! No, the problem is the recruits don’t respect authority and refuse to obey even the simplest commands.” He went on to say, “The Marines are still looking for a few good men that can be molded into Marines; those kinds of men, they just seem to be in short supply.”
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