Our text has been 2 Cor. 10: 3-5, verse 5 says “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought to THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST;” (emphasis mine). Before we go on to our current study on obedience of Christ, let us have a few more comments about strongholds. Strongholds are ‘houses’ built by thoughts we have accepted, acted upon or some how come in contact with and these thoughts have lodged themselves in our minds. The strongholds supply our conscious minds with thoughts and reasons that justify their presence in our lives. We want to get rid of strongholds but they actually supply reasons that justify their presence in us. Major strongholds are Pride, Fear, and Religion. They are blinding and controlling in any life they are allowed to exist without sufficient desire to challenge their existence.

THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRISTThe quality of obedience that is conveyed here is the type that Christ manifested. It is usually very easy to think of ourselves in terms of our efforts and attempts at obedience to God, this becomes our own standard of obedience. Sometimes we compare ourselves with others and justify our efforts by theirs. Christ is the standard bearer of the Christian faith. He is the standard, His obedience is the quality expected of us by God. Christ in us is the only one who can live the Christ-life. God said “this is my son in whom I am well pleased”. The Son is still the one who pleases the Father. When we let Him live in and through us we will be pleasing unto God as well. Jesus’ obedience made a big difference in the scheme of things in God. The first Adam failed through disobedience and Jesus, the last Adam succeeded through obedience. Jesus did not come to die, He came to obey God and it so occurred that laying down His life was part of God’s plans for Jesus. How do we get into this quality of obedience? By studying how He came into this quality. Let us examine how He handled the temptation to disobey God in the wilderness of temptation. In all the accounts of the temptation recorded in the gospels we see three major aspects in which He was tempted; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and pride of life. It is interesting to note that these were the same areas that Eve was also tempted in the Garden of Eden too. In 1 John 2:15-16, we see the same aspects that Satan uses to keep people in his hold in worldliness and sin.

Lust of the flesh: when Jesus had gone without food for 40days, the tempter comes to suggest an independent show of power in converting stones to bread. This is also to meet a legitimate need here, hunger. In one temptation he is appealing to His appetites here; the appetite for feeding the human body (lust of the flesh), the appetite for a showing of power to change stone to bread and a spirit of independence from God. Many are yet struggling with our needs being met. When these are not met we feel we are not loved by God. He had the opportunity to exercise His power to see His need met. There is a place of exercise of faith for needs to be met. This should be done as a result of our intimacy with God not independent of Him. How did Jesus deal with this? He committed to the Word of God over and above His felt needs. He shows us the way to handle this in our lives. Commit to every word that comes from the mouth of God over and above our needs. It is interesting that Jesus did not mention the experience He had at the baptism of John when the scripture records that the Spirit of God came up on Him like a dove and a voice came from heaven acknowledging Him as the beloved Son. He demonstrated that His commitment was to the authority of the Word rather than to be based on the feeling he had during the experience of the dove and the spoken Word from heaven. Real as that was, He quoted the scripture that He was committed to. The scriptures defined his life boundaries and those boundaries define the operation of the Lord and should be ours too. His obedience to the Father God was demonstrated by His submission to the authority of the Word.

The Lust of the eye: All the kingdoms of the earth were offered to Jesus if only He bowed to the enemy to get it. We face this regularly especially when the temptation to compromise the standards of God’s Word to get some seemingly good results for our selves. The female job seeker who is expected to ‘sleep around’ to get the job or the pressure to commit fraud in order to get a contract or business opportunity are all temptations that we face from time to time. These come in many shades in life. It is what we ‘see’ as our benefit in the matter that causes this to be a serious test for us. For Jesus it was getting that which Adam lost in the Garden without going through the death of the cross. For us the death that comes through the cross we bear is what the temptation seeks to avoid. Our willingness to bear the cross, which is the will of God, is the way out of this temptation. Jesus once again demonstrated His commitment to the written word by saying ‘it is written’. We need to do the same. How committed are we to living by the standards of the word of God? In the light of our appetites, our desires and our pride, will we give God’s Word the authority in our lives? This is the way our Lord demonstrated His obedience to God and He set a pattern for us to obey likewise.

The pride of life: when this pride is a product of what God has done for me it is more blinding. Religious strongholds are the worst to deal with as they are based on what we have acquired in GOD. Jesus was so tempted by the fact that God will give His angels if Jesus were to take chances to test if the God will send His angels. Pride of life is when we derive our sense of value from things rather than from our relationship with God. The danger is if those things came to us from God. How did Jesus obey God in this? By the same commitment to the written Word of God. To obey with the obedience of Christ is to cultivate an intimacy with God that is based on His written word and we submit to the authority of God by allowing His Word to be final authority in our lives.

The scripture says we bring every thought to the obedience of Christ; this means we bring all our thoughts to the place of submission to the authority of the Word of God. Philippians 4:8 says whatever is pure and so many other qualities should define what we think, these should be a permanent feature in our lives. Our thoughts are key issues in our obedience to God’s way and will for our lives.

In the final treatment of this subject we shall be looking at the power of obedience.

Jesus is Lord!
Rev. Kola Ewuosho

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Rev. Kola Ewuosho