The Cost of Rebellion

A little boy was being rather rowdy and his mother was doing her best to calm him down. Finally after several attempts at trying to get him to behave she came over grabbed him and sat him firmly upon a seat demanding he stay there.  He looked at her and then said, “Mom I may be sitting down but I’m standing up on the inside.”  That humorous story explains the behavior of a lot of people. It also exemplifies an attitude of rebellion which is something God hates.  All of us meet authority at different levels of our lives. Thus, it is something we cannot dismiss or avoid, especially in the spiritual realm.  If the believer wants to have authority he or she must first submit to it. This often presents a challenge because we tend to justify obedience on the basis of our agreement or disagreement with authority. If we agree we obey. If we disagree we offer complaint or protest. However, God has not given us the option to respond according to our own whims. He simply requires obedience.  And to refuse is to invite His judgment upon our lives. Not only are we to submit to Him but also to those over us in the Lord.  Paul describes it like this, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1). John Bevere agrees in his book Under Cover and states; “We cannot separate our submission to God’s inherent authority from our submission to His delegated authority….There is freedom in submission and bondage in rebellion.” One only has to do a random study on the lives of such Biblical characters as Adam, Eve, Saul, Miriam and Korah to discover that rebellion is too far great a price to pay for temporary spiritual volition.  God’s favor and authority come through submission. While He hates rebellion He loves obedience and sees it as the highest form of worship. So when it comes to compliance let it not be said that we are sitting down but standing on the inside. Rather, let us live our lives in obedience both inwardly and outwardly.