Partial Obedience is Disobedience

Day 2 – Read Judges 1:27-36

Have you ever done something half way?  Probably a silly question, haven’t we all cut corners or done part of a job without completely finishing it?  A better question is probably, what were the results?  Perhaps you did something half way and nobody ever knew.  Or, perhaps you did half the job but made it look like the whole job was done by covering some things up.  Sooner or later the half job tends to get exposed and often times ends up creating even more work and/or damage than if it had just been done fully and correctly in the first place.  The Israelites were told by God to drive the inhabitants of the Promised Land completely out but as we read, they didn’t do that, they allowed them to stay in the land.  We don’t know why the Israelites disobeyed this command maybe; they were too lazy, too tired, too compassionate, etc.  Maybe they thought God’s command was unfair, even mean.  Whatever it was, they only did part of what God told them to do.  That’s a dangerous place to be; partial obedience.  To a lot of people, the Bible feels old and outdated so we take it upon ourselves to make updates.  We decide which parts God really really means and which parts are open to our “updates”.  This results in partial obedience to God.  We live in a culture that tends to pick and choose which parts of the Bible we are going to believe/follow and which parts we are going to disregard.  Are you partially following God?  Ask God to reveal any areas where you are only partially following Him and as He reveals those, ask Him to help you follow Him completely because parital obedience is really disobedience.