The following is a sharing by Samuel Lim

Uncompromised Obedience
Text: Mark 1:40-45

            There are many lessons we can learn from this text in Mark where Jesus healed the man with leprosy. But today I am only going to touch on 1 lesson we can learn, which is to have uncompromised obedience.

            After Jesus healed the man of his leprosy, Jesus gave the man a specific charge. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." (v.43-44) The seriousness of Jesus can be felt, it was like Jesus saying to the man, ‘You cannot fail me here, follow exactly what I am telling you.’ The charge from Jesus was two-fold. Firstly, the man is not allowed to tell to anyone about the healing. Secondly, the man is to present himself before the priest and follow according to the law of Moses (Leviticus 14). The law of Moses for the cleansing of skin diseases takes 8 days before the person can be declared clean. Instead, the man went away from the Lord and began to talk freely, spreading the news. And because of the man’s failure to follow the charge from Jesus, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. (v.45)

            I want all of us to see the connection in our own lives. Are there times when disobedience seems so much easier than simply obeying what we know God wants us to do? In these times, we need to persevere. Although we may not see where the road may lead to if we obey the Lord, or how things will work out. But this testing of our faith is essential to our spiritual growth, ‘to know that God can do all things, and no plan of His can be thwarted.’ (Job 42:2) Are there times when we get impatient and want to see things done quickly? Instead of working together with God, we work with our own strength and simply find excuses to make our disobedience ‘spiritual’? Like in the case of the man cured from leprosy, he is actually spreading the news of God and making people know about Jesus. But God is not interested about what we can do for Him, God is more interested that we obey Him!

            And we know the result of disobedience. That God is not glorified as He should be. And neither are we able to fully experience the joy of God working through us.