I’m reading through 1 Samuel again and the accounts of Saul and David.  As you recall, Saul was the first king of Israel.  He was anointed to be king by Samuel and in the beginning seemed promising.  He appeared to be humble but the humility turned out to be massive insecurity and fear.  His reign was marked by moments of disobedience to God’s clear commands while always rationalizing why he had no options but to violate the commands.

In 1 Samuel 15, a revealing incident takes place. The Lord commands Saul to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy them for what they had done to Israel as they came from Egypt.  We are told that Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed most of them.  However, he took their king Agag prisoner and saved the best of their sheep and cattle. After the battle he encountered Samuel and said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’sinstructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” “Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied.  Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” (1 Sam. 15:13-21)

Saul’s character is revealed here and, to some degree, his view of God.  Saul seemed to think that if he generally did the will of God, he had done all that God had commanded.  He took the commands of God and then modified them to fit his situation, but then insisted that he had been fully obedient.  How many times do we obey God in some areas, but then find reasons to justify the part where we disobey while convincing ourselves that we are fully surrendered to God?

Over the years, I have known believers who were involved in immoral relationships but somehow decided that since they “loved one another” and were “faithful” to their lover that God was okay with what they were doing.   Others have embezzled money from their  company to “meet the needs of their family” and because the company owed them that money for all the years and hours they had put in without a raise or promotion.  Somehow, they were able to justify themselves because they “had to provide for their family” and because they were correcting their company’s injustice. I know others who have forgiven some, but have assigned others a special status where unforgiveness was justified because of how great the betrayal had been.  I have also known church leaders who excused their porn addictions because their wife wasn’t meeting their sexual needs and they were not having an actual affair. In all these instances, like Saul, they believed that because they were obedient in some things, they were obedient in all things.  Satan can blind us to the realities of our life and our disobedience to God.  If you had asked these individuals if they were submitted Christians who walked in obedience to God, they would have assured you that they were. 

Before we feel smug, I am pretty certain that we all have blind spots like these that we do not count as disobedience because we are obedient in many other areas and we find “reasons” why our disobedience should be acceptable due to “extenuating circumstances.”  Perhaps, we don’t give to the Lord or give to the poor as we should because we have other financial obligations – our boat payment, the big house we just purchased, the top-of-the-line pickup we really needed, the European vacation we had promised our spouse, etc.   Perhaps, we don’t serve at church because we are too busy with career, kid’s sports, our favorite recreational activities, etc.  Often, when we are financially blessed, we give money but not our time and so feel our money makes up for our time we don’t give the Lord because we are busy enjoying all the things money can provide.  None of these things are wrong in themselves except when they keep us from obedience.  Then, when we ignore or rationalize our disobedience, we have become like Saul. We fall into the view that God is pleased with “close enough.

We are all going to fall short in our obedience to God.  But our proper response is confession and repentance rather than rationalization and our insistence that we are submitted followers of Jesus in every area of our life. As we continue to read 1 and 2 Samuel, we see David fall into disobedience as well – the Bathsheba incident.  In many ways, what he did seems to far out rank Saul’s failures as sin.  The difference was that David acknowledged his sin, made no excuses, and threw himself on the mercy of God. Saul consistently denied his disobedience, insisted that circumstances had left him no choice, or blamed others for “forcing” him into his bad decisions.

As a result, God removed the kingdom from Saul and gave it to David.  Samuel declared, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices in as much as obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.”  May we be aware of our failures to obey, but repent rather than rationalize.  And may our prayer be the same as David’s: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. (Jn.15:15-17).

This is one of those texts that gives us comfort. To know that Jesus would call us a friend not only makes him approachable but also elevates our status with God. Both of those truths are good news. If Jesus were simply Lord, we might still see him as unapproachable like a CEO of a huge company we might work for. He might know our name. He might sign our paycheck. He might even show up to make a speech on employee appreciation day. He wouldn’t, however, drop by our office or the loading dock to see how the family was doing and have a cup of coffee. He wouldn’t invite us home for Christmas dinner or ask us over to play cards with him and his wife. We would still sense the immense gulf between labor and management.

Unlike the hypothetical CEO above, Jesus offers each of us friendship. Friendship is the revelation that he is willing to confide in us the secret things that the Father has revealed to him. He offers us the esteemed position of confidant. He is willing to spend time with us, hang out with us, and share his heart and his plans. That is an amazing offer from the one who has been exalted to the highest place and given a name that is above every name (Phil. 2:9).

For most of us, that offer is both exciting and humbling. And yet, what many believers don’t realize is the position of friend is not automatic. Not every believer will be a friend of Jesus. John Bevere puts it this way in his book, Drawing Near. He writes, “Often we hear messages that proclaim all who receive Jesus are now his friends. Hopefully, you now realize God is not a cheap, group friend. Once while in prayer He cried out, ‘Ask my people if they want me to be as faithful to them as they have been to me?’ Jesus did not come as a savior so everyone could join the ‘born again club.’ He is looking for relationships with those who love Him as He loved them; here we find friendship.”

I have to agree with John because the verse just before the text quoted above declares, “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you” (Jn. 15:14). He goes on to say that he has chosen those as friends who bear fruit in the kingdom. So obedience and fruitfulness define those whom Jesus will call friends as well as their willingness to love one another. In some ways he defines the essence of discipleship here…love God, love one another, and bear fruit in the kingdom.

In the past fifty years, the theological pendulum has swung from the old hell fire and brimstone preaching of some evangelists to a total focus on grace. We are certainly saved by grace, but grace has been popularly defined by many believers as a license to live however they choose to live and still walk into heaven with head held high. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran priest who stood his ground against Hitler in Nazi Germany. He was eventually executed. One of his greatest posits was that there is a real cost to discipleship. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. On many occasions, Jesus talked about the necessity of bearing a cross if we are to follow him.

Without lapsing into legalism or salvation by works, we must still acknowledge that this who simply hear what Jesus says but do not put those things into practice have missed the mark and the relationship that Jesus desires. Our obedience and fruitfulness are not efforts to be saved, but our genuine response to being saved. If we want friendship with Jesus, it begins with obedience and not obedience only when our flesh agrees with his command. True obedience is measured by our willingness to surrender to the commands our flesh wants to reject.

I’m writing this as a reminder to myself as well as anyone else reading this. It is easy to coast and stay in our comfort zone when it comes to serving Jesus. Often, in my own life, the issue is not my involvement in sin, but my passivity when it comes to doing good…sharing my faith with a stranger, reaching out to the poor, acting in loving ways toward those who continue to hurt me, and so forth. I do want to be a friend of a Jesus, but I must remember that the offer does have conditions. But to settle for less, is to cheat myself and to devalue the price he paid to make that offer. I hope you are his friend.

Blessings in Him…