Obedience is obedience, what do you think?

"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' "'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. "Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered. Matt 21:28-31 NIV

Religious languages and many religious rituals are going to become irrelevant the day we stand before God to answer for our actions. Pretense and hypocrisy will suddenly be exposed for what they are. A lot of boastings and strong claims will be found empty. Why? This is because the question will be, what did you do with your life? Did you obey the Lord or not? Did you do the Father’s will?

I have made this argument for years that in spiritual matters, obedience is obedience, as long as you did it with all your heart. There are many issues that people raise each time I say this. Some argue that the quality of your obedience will determine whether God will accept it or not. They say that you do not have to struggle when you hear instructions from God. If you struggle and later obey, it reduces the quality. Etc. Look at the illustration the Lord gave in our passage above. The first son struggled but later obeyed while the second son who people around saw as a ‘good’ son the time the father was speaking to them, did not actually do the father’s will. The Lord Jesus asked a question, "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered. Notice that He did not argue the answer the people gave to His question.

Please no matter what happens; no matter how you have messed up your life; the fact that you are still alive reading this means that there is hope for you and you can have a new beginning. You can start afresh with God. God will never say that you came too late and reject you. You may be among those that came at the first hour who started early. You may be among those who came at the third hour, fine. You may even be among those who joined the work at the sixth hour or even at the eleventh hour before the day ended. Let not bother you anymore. The question on that day will be, ‘who did what the Father wanted?’ What is of utmost importance is that you decide to obey God NOW. Remember that He gave all of them rewards for obeying Him.

For me, obedience is obedience. What do you think? God bless you!

See Matthew 20 for further study.