Radical Obedience?
One of the early phrases that I picked up when I began to learn about the multiplying church planting and disciple making movements was "Radical Obedience". I began to learn that Obedience Based Discipleship was a key principle....a "Critical Element" in all CPMs and began to talk about it and use the phrase "Radical Obedience". One of the early CPMs that was reported from Cambodia in the 1990s was connected with the ministry of Bruce Carlton. I have not had the privilege of meeting Mr. Carlton, but was inspired by his book that tells the early story of his ministry there and the beginnings of a CPM. The book is called "Amazing Grace", and it was published by "Radical Obedience Publishing"! I was inspired, just by the name of the publishing house! It reminded me of the publisher of David Garrison's books on CPM, "WIGtake publishers". It stands for What's it gonna take! I love it and I love the spirit of passion and commitment that is evidenced in these words.
At any rate, the phrase "Radical Obedience" entered my vocabulary.
But recently I began to reflect on it and realized that "Radical Obedience" is kind of like the words "Permissive Will Of God". A lot of people comfort themselves that they are in God's "Permissive Will", but if they would stop and think....Satan is in God's Permissive Will. The Bible does not teach a Permissive Will of God and a Perfect Will. It simply states that God's will is Perfect! Romans 12:2 says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." NASB There are basically just 2 states: in God's will and out of God's will. We are not given a middle ground option of "permissive will" where we are not in God's will, but still OK!
Now, I am not trying to nitpick this, and I realize that most of the time when the phrase "permissive will" is used, it is in reference to things that are not specified in scripture anyway, so sometimes it is "permissible" I suppose. But this kind of language illustrates how far from "Obedience Based Discipleship" we typically find ourselves.
Take "Radical Obedience" for instance. I suppose that sometimes in our lives as believers it would be "Radical" to "Actually" Obey, but it seems to me that there are only 2 states of Obedience: Actual Obedience or Actual Disobedience (the word Actual is not needed, but I am making a point here). Other categories like Slow Obedience, Gradual Obedience, Partial Obedience, etc. are just forms of Disobedience. God is looking for Actual Obedience and if this is Radical in our day, then so be it.
Before I close, let me be clear about Who and What the CPM/DMM practitioners are talking about giving our Obedience to: It is to God and to His Word, the Bible. It is not teaching Obedience to religious rules and entities and traditions of men or even to spiritual leaders. It is teaching Obedience to the Word of God, and thus to God Himself. God in His Word makes clear that "Obedience is Better than Sacrifice". (I Samuel 15:22). That means that Obedience is to God's clear instructions (in His Word) and religious practices, rituals, rules, structures etc can give us lots to do, that are simply inefficacious "sacrifice". Make no mistake: We are obligated to Obey God's Word, not follow through on all the religious advice that is available to us. We can do the latter and not the former. This was the sin of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day.
That is where something like a 3 column Bible study that leads to Obedience commitments comes in. That is why in the Discovery Bible Studies in Honduras and elsewhere, every study leads to Obedience commitments. These are decisions to obey God's word, freely entered into by the disciple, between themselves and God, with others in the group on the same journey and encouraging each other in the process. But the obedience is to God alone and not to man.
And in our day that may be Radical!
At any rate, the phrase "Radical Obedience" entered my vocabulary.
But recently I began to reflect on it and realized that "Radical Obedience" is kind of like the words "Permissive Will Of God". A lot of people comfort themselves that they are in God's "Permissive Will", but if they would stop and think....Satan is in God's Permissive Will. The Bible does not teach a Permissive Will of God and a Perfect Will. It simply states that God's will is Perfect! Romans 12:2 says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." NASB There are basically just 2 states: in God's will and out of God's will. We are not given a middle ground option of "permissive will" where we are not in God's will, but still OK!
Now, I am not trying to nitpick this, and I realize that most of the time when the phrase "permissive will" is used, it is in reference to things that are not specified in scripture anyway, so sometimes it is "permissible" I suppose. But this kind of language illustrates how far from "Obedience Based Discipleship" we typically find ourselves.
Take "Radical Obedience" for instance. I suppose that sometimes in our lives as believers it would be "Radical" to "Actually" Obey, but it seems to me that there are only 2 states of Obedience: Actual Obedience or Actual Disobedience (the word Actual is not needed, but I am making a point here). Other categories like Slow Obedience, Gradual Obedience, Partial Obedience, etc. are just forms of Disobedience. God is looking for Actual Obedience and if this is Radical in our day, then so be it.
Before I close, let me be clear about Who and What the CPM/DMM practitioners are talking about giving our Obedience to: It is to God and to His Word, the Bible. It is not teaching Obedience to religious rules and entities and traditions of men or even to spiritual leaders. It is teaching Obedience to the Word of God, and thus to God Himself. God in His Word makes clear that "Obedience is Better than Sacrifice". (I Samuel 15:22). That means that Obedience is to God's clear instructions (in His Word) and religious practices, rituals, rules, structures etc can give us lots to do, that are simply inefficacious "sacrifice". Make no mistake: We are obligated to Obey God's Word, not follow through on all the religious advice that is available to us. We can do the latter and not the former. This was the sin of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day.
That is where something like a 3 column Bible study that leads to Obedience commitments comes in. That is why in the Discovery Bible Studies in Honduras and elsewhere, every study leads to Obedience commitments. These are decisions to obey God's word, freely entered into by the disciple, between themselves and God, with others in the group on the same journey and encouraging each other in the process. But the obedience is to God alone and not to man.
And in our day that may be Radical!
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