What could obeying God be wrong?  Isn’t that what He commands?  Yes it is.  But like everything else in this life, there is a right way and a wrong way to obey Him.  It’s a matter of what I call “heartset.”  The Bible translators use the word “heart” where the word “mind” was the original intent.  For example: “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.”  We think with our minds, not our hearts.  That settled, now back to the title of this posting.  Can we obey God and be wrong?  Absolutely.  Not only can our acts of obedience to Him (praying, reading the Bible, congregating, tithing, singing, preaching, etc.) be wrong in His eyes, He can actually HATE ALL OF THOSE ACTS.  Let us allow Him to elaborate.

In the Book written by the Prophet Amos we find God speaking to “the house of Israel”–His Chosen People.  In chapter five He makes a statement that should send a warning message through the mind of everyone who claims to belong to Him.  He begins with this epithet: “Hear you this Word which I take up against you, even a lamentation O house of Israel” (vs 1).  For the next nine verses He rails against His Chosen People.  In verse ten He explains why: “You hate him who rebukes you in the gate (where people gathered for public discourse) and abhor him that speaks My Truth.”  In other words, the people rejected what He spoke to them through His messengers.  In verse 15 He tells the people to “Hate the evil, love the good and establish righteous judgment in the gate.”  Jesus said that those who rejected His Words spoken through His messengers despise both Him and His Father (Lk. 10:16).

Beginning with verse 20 the Almighty waxes specific relative to His attitude toward His Chosen People who today comprise the bulk of professing Christianity.  He begins with their treatment of His Sabbath, which reveals His attitude toward that special day: “Do not turn the day of the Lord (the 7th day of the week) into darkness and not light, into great darkness with no light in it.”  His attitude toward His Sabbath, which He “blessed and sanctified” (set aside for holy use–Genesis 2:3), and which He calls “My Holy Day” (Isa. 58:13) has not changed because, as He said: “I am the Lord: I do not change” (Mal. 3:6).  “The church” rejects these Words, along with approximately 80% of everything else He says in His Holy Bible.

Bear in mind that the same Lord had commanded Israel to observe His Holy Sabbath and other Holy Days (“feasts”–festivals), to congregate on His Sabbaths, to make meat and peace offerings to atone for their sins, to sing songs unto Him and to play musical instruments.  The meat and peace offerings were instituted because they would not obey His Ten Commandment Law (Exo. 30).

Now turn to Amos 5 to see what that same God says to their descendants many years later.  Following His rebuke of Israel for not properly observing His weekly Sabbath, He added that He hated their feast days, their congregating on His Sabbath, their burnt offerings and meat offering and peace offerings, their singing and their playing of musical instruments.  Note it: GOD HATED THE VERY THINGS HE HAD COMMANDED THEM TO DO.  What could prompt Him to hate the very things they were doing in obedience to Him?  The answer is found in Amos 3:2: “You (Israel) I have known of all the families of the earth, THEREFORE I WILL PUNISH YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR INIQUITIES (TRANSGRESSIONS OF HIS LAW).”

God was telling His people, who were called by His name, and who did exactly what He commanded them to do relative to their worship of Him, that HE HATED EVERYTHING THEY DID.  They made all the right religious moves with their bodies, BUT THEIR HEARTS WERE NOT IN IT.  Generations later that same God would speak to their fellow Israelites–the Jews (tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi), warning them as recorded in Luke 6:46: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not what I tell you,”  On another occasion He spoke about the same people: “They honor Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me” (Mk. 7:6).  Therein lies the key to the question posed in the title.

Nothing has changed.  Much attention is paid relative to church activities on the sun worshipers day of observance (Sunday).  However, God’s Holy Sabbath Day (Saturday) is just another work or play day to them.  For this reason God views their religious activities–assembling, reading the Scriptures, hearing a sermon, praying, tithing, smiling, etc.–the same way He viewed the Sabbath activities of the ancient Israelites–HE HATES THEIR RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES.  HIS ATTITUDE IS THE SAME RELATIVE TO SUNDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT SERVICES, CHRISTMAS, EASTER, HALLOWEEN, VALENTINE’S DAY,   But notice that, both then and now, those who called (call) themselves by His name OBEYED (OBEY) HIS COMMANDS WHEN DOING WHAT THEY DID (DO).  So what was the problem then and what is the problem now?  One word sums up why God hated (hates) their worship activities: ATTITUDE.

In Ephesus 6:5,6 the Apostle Paul writes to the church concerning the subject of attitude relative to obeying God by telling them how they must obey their human bosses: “not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but as the servants of Christ who DO THE WILL OF GOD FROM THE HEART.”  God wants us to obey Him BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM AND STRIVE TO PLEASE HIM.  He wants His people to LOVE HIS WAY OF LIFE AS MUCH AS HE DOES.  That type of love motivated Jesus to obey Him, even to the point of death.  This level of love cannot be produced by the individual.  We must have the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us to that caliber of love and provide us the power to attain it and maintain it.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and are filled with righteousness have this type of love for all of God’s ways.  Such people find that the more they love God and His way the harder they strive to obey Him.  They grow in grace and holiness until they: “come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).  At this point they, along with Jesus, are one with the Father and are spiritually “walking in heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3).

Those who obey and worship God with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him (Sinners Saved By Grace) are “ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).  These are they to whom Jesus will say on the Day of Judgment: “I never knew you, depart from Me you who work iniquity (Lawlessness)” (Mat. 7:23).

IT ALL COMES BACK TO THE WORLD.  L.J.