Love is More Than a Warm Fuzzy

“Samuel replied, ‘Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams’”  —1 Samuel 15:22 NIV.

When in doubt, read the instructions. Better yet, read them before you have doubts and certainly before Part A is attached to Part C and Part B is left on the floor along with six homeless screws.

In King Saul’s case there was no doubt about the instructions God had given him through Samuel. He knew what he was supposed to do. When it was time to “fess up” Saul tried to cover his disobedience with spirituality. In Saul’s case, he told Samuel that he had saved the sheep he had been told by God to destroy, claiming that they had been spared so that they could be offered to God as a sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:15). He also intimated that the whole debacle wasn’t his fault, that his soldiers had disobeyed his orders.

Samuel didn’t buy it.

The blame game was nothing new and though many things have grown old with time and been cast aside, that particular game lives on. Trying to sugar coat the bitter pill of disobedience with a kind of “It’s the thought that counts” attitude is also nothing new.

 Jesus said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command” —John 14:15, NIV. Simple. Black and white. No frills. And the One who said it also reminds us through the Apostle Paul that even when the commandment seems hard, the One who gave the orders will give us the ability to carry it out (Philippians 4:13).

It seems that in the end, the whole issue rests on the strength of our love.