Unless otherwise noted, all quotes come from EM Bounds’ book, The Necessity of Prayer.
Defining Obedience
“What is obedience? It is doing God’s will: it is keeping His commandments. How many of the commandments constitute obedience? To keep half of them, and to break the other half-is that real obedience? To keep all the commandments but one-is that obedience? On this point, James the apostle is most explicit: “Whosoever shall keep the whole law,” he declares, “and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
“The spirit which prompts a man to break one commandment is the spirit which may move him to break them all. God’s commandments are a unit, and to break one strikes at the principle which underlies and runs through the whole.”
“Obedience, moreover, is faith in action, and is the outflow as it is the very test of love.”
The Nature of Obedience
“Obedience is love, fulfilling every command, love expressing itself. Obedience, therefore, is not a hard demand made upon us, any more than the service a husband renders his wife, or a wife renders her husband. Love delights to obey, and please whom it loves.”
The Possibility of Obedience
“If any should obey that humanity, under the fall, is too weak and helpless to obey these high commands of God, the reply is in order that, through the atonement of Christ, man is enabled to obey. The atonement is God’s enabling act… so that, while God commands, He at the same time stands pledged to give us all necessary strength of will and grace of soul to meet His demands.”
The Blessing of Obedience
“The gift of the Holy Spirit in full measure and in richer experience, depends upon loving obedience.”
“Obedience to God makes it easy to believe and trust God.”
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