If you ever played in an organized sport, you likely remember your coach telling you to get some rest before a big game. If you ever traveled for a team sporting event, your coach likely gave you and your teammates a curfew that was strictly enforced (e.g., if you broke curfew, you would be benched). As a result, some athletes had to forgo other big events (e.g. missing high school prom). While most student-athletes don’t like the idea of having to sacrifice one event for another, the truly dedicated ones gladly do so.
Commitment to the end goal gives us the best chance for success. Sacrifices are a necessary aspect of winning. They are for our own good.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
– 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Paul was as committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as any athlete has ever been to their sport. His commitment and focus brought him great success! He was truly blessed.
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians 3:14
If you ever had a good coach, then you know that part of their job is to help you set and meet goals. At the beginning of every season, coaches typically lay out the ground rules for team membership. They will often say that making the team through tryouts is only the first step. The real work is yet to come. To be a member of the team, commitment is mandatory – what the coaching staff demands must be obeyed. If you don’t like it, then you can give your coveted team spot to someone who is willing to commit. For example, when the coach sets a curfew or prohibits you from attending another event before a big game, you mustn’t disobey. It’s in your best interest, as an individual and for the team.
Likewise, God’s commands are for your own good, to His glory.
In the spiritual life, commitment and obedience can sometimes become conflated with religion (doing something simply for the sake of doing it). In sport, even though practices are necessary, you don’t practice with an injury that could end your season and the team’s chances for success. If your coach says rest, then you rest. Case in point, spiritually, the Jews during Jesus’ time turned something meant for the overall good of God’s people, namely the Sabbath, into bondage.
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
– Matthew 12:1-8
The spirit of the Law was to glorify God, of course. The Sabbath did so by giving His people a rest when He thought they needed it (not much different than when a sports coach gives their team a rest so they don’t become burned out before their next game). In other words, God commanded the Jews take a rest for a reason – for their own good. It wasn’t meant to weigh them down even further.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
– 1 John 5:2-4
While the Sabbath is a great example of how easy it is for man to turn a blessing into a curse, the Bible clearly teaches that – with the right perspective – none of God’s commands are meant to be burdensome (v3). With the right perspective, we see that all of God’s commands are for our own good!
In a sense, the Lord God is our Great Coach in Heaven. He gives us commands, as members of His team, so that we, too, can have great success during our tenure here on Earth, the way Paul did, who once said, “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). Obedience, my dear friend, is for your own good.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins