Obedience Over Happiness
Obedience. Act or instance of submitting to the restraint or command of an authority; compliance with the demands or requests of someone or something over us. The general words for obedience in both Hebrew and Greek refer to hearing or hearkening to a superior authority. Another major Greek word includes the idea of submission to authority in the sense of arranging or ordering oneself under someone in a place of command.
16 “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Matthew 26:39
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
John 14:15
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Acts 5:29
29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
Philippians 2:8
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
The intrinsically good state of life regarded as supremely worth having. The ancient Greeks tended to agree that happiness, or eudaimonia, is the end or goal of the ethical life, while disagreeing about the nature of happiness and how to achieve it. Broadly speaking, Aristotle tended to think of happiness as consisting mainly of activities. In other words, the happy person is the one who flourishes by actualizing his or her human potential. Hedonists think of happiness more as a life of pleasant experiences. Christians tend to link true happiness with the blessedness found in knowing God.
Christians are to render obedience to a variety of people: believers to the Lord (Jn 14:21–24; 15:10), wives to their own husbands (Eph 5:22, 24; Col 3:18; Ti 2:5; 1 Pt 3:1, 5), children to their parents (Eph 6:1; Col 3:20), citizens to their government officials (Rom 13:1–7; Ti 3:1; 1 Pt 2:13, 14), and servants to their masters (Eph 6:5; Col 3:22; Ti 2:9; 1 Pt 2:18).
However, in spite of the strong stress on obedience in the Bible, such obedience is never made the grounds for justification before God. Paul declares, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph 2:8–10 KJV). Paul goes on to encourage believers to “be careful to engage in good deeds” (Ti 3:14). So, too, James speaks of works of obedience logically flowing from faith (2:14–26). Such obedience is the fulfillment of Paul’s command for Christians to continue working out their salvation (Phil 2:12).
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.