What is obedience? CQ Kids

Ephesians (6:1, NIV) says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Obedience means following a rule, request, or law from a higher authority - like God, your parents or your teachers, for example.

In the Bible, when God’s people followed His righteous commands, they were happy and received blessings. We trust and obey God because:

1) He loves us and has our best interests in mind,
2) His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, (see Isaiah 55:8,9) and
3) We can’t see the full picture of our lives like He can.

For instance, imagine attending a parade. As you watch the decorated floats pass by, you can only see what is directly in front of you, and maybe a bit ahead or behind if you turn your head.

Now imagine God in heaven, who can see the ENTIRE parade from above, from start to finish. (see Isaiah 46:10) When it comes to His plan for all of humanity, He knows the beginning, the end, and everything in between. He has all of the information but we do not.

Jesus is an excellent example of perfect obedience. Throughout his life and ministry, as God’s representative on earth, Jesus always obeyed the will of his father. Hebrews (5:8, Berean Study Bible) says, “…he learned obedience from what he suffered.” This means that he learned to be obedient under pressure - the pressure of enduring many extremely difficult experiences. Despite everything he went through, he carried out his Father’s will perfectly, succeeding at every turn!

Obedience goes along with humility, which is the quality of not thinking too highly of yourself, of being humble. Jesus was certainly humble. Speaking about him, Philippians (2:8, NASB) says, “...he humbled