Does Disobedience = Rebellion?
As a child, I obeyed my parents… most of the time. But when I didn’t, I really didn’t. My disobedience, coupled with lies, always caught up with me and cost me. The most important cost was the trust of my parents. Not until I was 14 and had an encounter with Jesus did I realize that disobedience was, in fact, rebellion.
I Samuel 15:23 reads, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Samuel, the prophet, gave specific instructions to King Saul. King Saul altered those instructions and paid a high cost for his rebellion. He lost his position as king. We read later in I Samuel 28 that Saul consults a witch for instruction.
In our world today, where situational ethics runs the right or wrong decision-making, if we don’t hold to a standard, we won’t know where the line is drawn between not just right and wrong, but obedience and disobedience. For example, we tend to call sin struggels or mistakes, instead of what they are, sin. The very nature of mankind is sinful, but if we think there is any good in us besides God, we totter on the precipice of self-idolatry.
Recognizing the need for a Savior and then acting on it changes a person’s perspective to see clearly how God intended things to be all along. In the garden before Adam and Eve rebelled against God, all things were perfect. That may seem impossible, because of the world in which we live, but it is true, nevertheless. And one day, it will be true again.
Meanwhile, Christians get to live in an imperfect world serving a perfect God. Let’s return to our story of Maverick, living in her imperfect world, with disobedience in her actions, all the while trying to make sense of what is going on around her.
Join us next Sunday for another Time With the Father. Like, share, and subscribe, and leave us a comment. Meanwhile, remember the matter of the heart is the heart of the matter.
Dr. Michele
January 18, 2026
