In the book of Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, the Sovereign God says a startling thing–he tells the people to stop bringing sacrifices to the Temple. What catches my attention when I read this is that it was God who told them to bring the sacrifices in the first place. So, what does God really want? Does he want the sacrifices or not?

At issue in Malachi is the way that worshippers were bringing their worship, bringing their sacrifices. It was (and still is) possible to worship wrongly. Those being addressed by Malachi were bringing sacrifices, but their hearts were not in it; they were only going through the motions, so God said stop bringing the sacrifices. You can approach God, even doing what he commanded, in a wrong way.

I believe that the same is true about obedience. It is possible to obey God in a right way, and it is possible to obey God in a wrong way. One way honors God and leads to his receiving glory; and the wrong way fails to honor God rightly and tends to have the “obey-er” in focus.

It seems that this must be some of the truth that forms the foundation for Paul’s exhortation to the followers of Jesus in Philippi. He has presented to them the example of Jesus. He longs for them to grow up into spiritual maturity to “look like” Jesus. Having painted that picture in the first part of chapter two of his letter to the Philippians, he writes:

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

At first read, it seems clear that Paul wants to see obedience flowing out of the life of these friends of his. But, it is crucial for them (and for us) to understand just what that obedience is.

The obedience, the giving of oneself to this Jesus-like life, is not a self-help effort. This is not the obedience that comes from self-effort, the obedience that “tries hard” to please God or to earn his favor or to maintain one’s status before God or men. This is not an obedience rooted in what I think I can do or what I think I can muster up. All such efforts at obedience would, ultimately, be efforts to put myself (my obedience) on display in one way or another.

Paul says that this obedience–the obedience  that flows from “working out” the reality of our salvation in our daily living–is rooted in what God is doing in the soul. And what is it that God does?

He is both working (that is, providing the enablement) and willing (that is, providing the willingness) in order for us to live this way. This means that this obedience is an obedience that flows in life from the transforming power of God’s grace. This obedience is a way of life that flows out of us “because of” rather than “in order to.” That is, we live the way we do because of what God himself is doing in us, not in order to get God to approve, or applaud, or support, or embrace us.

There is a right way to think of obedience and a wrong way to think of obedience. Obedience that is the giving in to what God himself is undertaking in our souls is like jumping in the river and going with the flow. That is the right way to think of obedience.

This is “help-ful obedience”–obedience that flows out of life because we are full of God’s gracious help to live in such radically different ways.