Disobedience

Disobedience enters people’s hearts for various reasons

Disobedience comes through greed and lust

Genesis 3:6 NRSV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

See also Ge 3:11–12; Ex 16:19–20; Jos 7:20–21; 2 Sa 11:2–4

Disobedience arises from impatience

Exodus 32:23 NRSV

They said to me, ‘Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

See also Nu 20:10–11; 1 Sa 13:8–14

Disobedience comes through fear

Je 43:2–7; Jn 7:13; Jn 12:42; Ga 2:12

Disobedience results from pride and arrogance

Leviticus 10:1 NRSV

Now Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them.

See also Ex 5:2; 2 Ch 26:16

Unbelief is disobedience

Hebrews 3:12 NRSV

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

See also Je 7:23–28; Ro 11:30–32 Ro 11:20 makes it clear that the disobedience spoken of here was unbelief; Heb 3:18–19; Heb 4:2; Heb 4:6

Lack of love is disobedience

John 14:24 NRSV

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

See also 1 Jn 2:9; 1 Jn 3:15

Disobedience to God leads to punishment

Punishment is applied to individuals

Genesis 3:17–19 NRSV

And to the man he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

See also Ge 3:23–24; Le 10:1–2; Nu 20:12; 1 Sa 28:18; 2 Sa 12:14; Jon 1:10–12; Eph 5:5–6

Punishment for the disobedience of unbelief

2 Thessalonians 1:8–9 NRSV

in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

See also Heb 2:2–3

Nations are also punished

Genesis 15:14 NRSV

but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

See also Ac 7:7

Dt 11:26–28; 1 Sa 12:15

See also Ex 32:35; Dt 28:15; Is 13:11

Disobedience, like all sin, can be forgiven

Romans 5:19 NRSV

For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

See also Eph 2:1–5