Educated Beyond Our Level of Obedience

Text: Jonah 1:4-6

“Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” —Romans 2:4 (NLT)

It’s been said that most Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience.

That statement cuts like a knife. I am all too familiar with my failures to live up to the knowledge that I have of the holy Scriptures, especially those red letters of Jesus that command that we love our enemies, bless those who curse us or speak ill of us, or pray for those who persecute us. I thank God for His mercies and trust that He continues to grow me in grace, particularly in these areas of discipleship.  

Jonah was a prophet of the LORD, well educated in the things of God and knowledgeable of the Scriptures. Jonah was given a distinct mission to go and preach the word of the LORD to the Ninevites, who had historically been enemies of Jonah’s people, the Israelites. It doesn’t seem that the wellbeing, or the fate of the Ninevites, was high on Jonah’s priority list. He may have supposed that serving God could be more like a spiritual à la carte approach, where you can pick and choose your areas of obedience as it fits into your comfort zone.

As we saw last week, Jonah chose “safe” theology over absolute surrender to God. Perhaps in pride, he wrote the Ninevite people off as the bad guys who didn’t deserve a second chance or a shot at repentance. Surely there would be people in Tarshish, more likeable people, who were more “deserving” of hearing God’s word, and wouldn’t pose a threat to him. The reputation of the “bloody” Ninevites may have been too intimidating to Jonah (Nahum 3:1).

As Jonah fled the presence of the LORD on a ship to Tarshish, “the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.” The mariners were afraid and their lives were in grave danger. No one is more selfish in this picture than Jonah. He is sleeping through the storm. A good indicator of a calloused spirit is when we find ourselves sleeping through a crisis as it affects others but doesn’t touch our heart. The fate of the Ninevites didn’t touch Jonah’s heart, and neither does the distress of the mariners on the ship. He is spiritually dull, woefully indifferent, and backslidden to the core.  

But this is a story of God’s crazy love and amazing grace more than it is about Jonah’s failures, his disobedience, or getting sideways in the mission. We understand that God could’ve easily let Jonah run off into the sunset and simply found a replacement prophet, like a second string guy on the bench who would be more hungry for the ball with the game on the line. But God didn’t do that. He loved Jonah too much to let him get away. Isn’t it an awesome, maybe even convicting, picture to see the pagan mariners being the ones waking Jonah up from his slumber during the storm, and urging him to call out to his God? How often has God used a lost person to convict you of your sin and waywardness?

In our aim to follow Jesus, being the kind of people who are loving, considerate, compassionate, and touched by the wellbeing and eternal fate of our neighbors is not a deluxe version of Christianity, it is the standard. Serving the poor, the incarcerated, the marginalized, or the oppressed is not some à la carte option on the biblical menu, it’s at the very heart of Jesus and His mission (Luke 4:18). Being a part of Gospel communities who strive to make disciples together is not just a category of Christianity reserved for those more gifted “people-persons,” it’s for every one of us who call ourselves believers (Mark 16:15-20; Acts 2:42-47).

CONSIDER: Where have you been educated in the Scriptures beyond your level of obedience? Or, when have you had a speck of judgmental attitude toward other Christians in their area of deficiency, and not seen the plank in your own eye? Think about that as you seek to abide in Him this week.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we long for your kingdom to be what wakes us up in the morning and lays us down at night. We often fail you in those in-between times of that rising and going to bed. Holy Spirit, teach us where these deficiencies can be narrowed in our discipleship journey and we can become more conformed to the image of Christ. This mercy is all from the riches of your kindness and patience. Thank you for that grace, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Questions for Reflection and/or Group Discussion

1. What biblical commands or scriptural principles do you find hardest to obey?
2. What kind of people do you find it hard to love, or demonstrate the Gospel toward? How does Jonah’s callousness resonate with you? Why?
3. What are your feelings toward the unbelievers around you? What do you think is at the root of those feelings?
4. In what ways have you been judgmental toward the deficiencies in other Christians while ignoring your own?
5. How has God pursued you when you have tried to avoid Him? In what ways will you worship and flesh out your gratitude for His grace, mercy, and kindness?

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