Lesson 7: Extending My Obedience

“I discern and follow God’s will better as my love for him grows.”

To learn to follow God’s will in ten areas of daily living.

► What would be some results if a person loved God more?

One result of loving God more is described in Philippians 1:9-11.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

These verses tell about an ongoing process in the believer’s life. His love should be continually increasing. As that happens, his ability to discern what is best should increase. As he discerns, he adapts his life to focus on what is best. This must be happening in order for him to be sincere and without offense.

We do not understand all the truth that we should be living by at the time that we are first saved. The people that Paul wrote to in the above verses had been Christians for some time already. Yet, Paul prayed that they would keep loving God more and, by that love, be able to better understand God’s will.

We should expect to continually improve our lives as God gives discernment. God wants our complete obedience in all aspects of our lives, not just in religious observance.

We should not assume that we already know everything that we need to know about how to live. We should not assume that we have made all of the adjustments to our life that it needs.

1. Carefulness of influence. Are there things you do that you would not want others to do?

2. Self-control. Do you control your feelings and desires enough to do what you should, or do you sometimes act in a way that would be expected of a non-Christian?

3. Care of health. Do you care for your body as a set of irreplaceable tools to work for God? Since your body belongs to God, it should not be damaged. You are not to treat it carelessly.

4. Choice of entertainment. Does your entertainment tend to bring you into struggles with temptation by causing wrong thoughts or attitudes? Beware of anything that presents sin as attractive or funny.

5. Manners. Treat others respectfully, like people in the image of God with eternal destinies. The people you are among have their customs for showing courtesy. You should learn to be courteous in a way that they recognize. Be kind even when someone doesn’t deserve it.

6. Business ethics. Are you completely honest in all dealings? Do you describe things exactly as they are or cause someone to think something that is not true?

7. Punctuality. Time is a valuable resource that we should use for God. Do you put value on your time and others’ time by keeping a schedule when possible?

8. Dress. Does your clothing show the values of decency (concealing the body sufficiently), humility (not trying to attract attention or admiration by what you wear), and thriftiness (not buying more expensive clothes than you need)?

9. Language. Is your conversation pure and respectful of God and others? Many of the words the world uses as exclamations come from obscenities or terms for God.

10. Reliability. Do you keep commitments? Can people expect you to do what you say? Do you forget your promises if they are not convenient?

Many people don’t take seriously their need to improve. They feel responsible only for the plain commands of scripture, not realizing that those commands have many applications.

We need to realize that improvement is linked to the increase of our love for God. We need to seriously meditate on the verses we started with in this lesson. If our love is increasing, our discernment and choice of right behaviors should be improving.

Ask these questions for individual response:

► What is an example of a change that you made in your life when God showed you that an attitude, habit, or action was not the best?

► Is there something in your lifestyle that you know you should change? Will you do it?

► Is there anything in your life that you have doubts about?

► Are you willing to let God show you in prayer any changes that you should make?

Say, “Let’s commit to pray this week with an open heart so that God can show us his values and any changes he wants to make in our lives. Will you commit to do that? Next week I will ask you if you did.”

Heavenly Father,

I want my love for you to continually increase. I want to better understand your will for me.

Help me to learn to discern what is most pleasing to you so that I can live a life that is pure and without offense.

Help me to see habits and attitudes that need to change and to gain habits and attitudes that glorify you.

I want to bear fruit for the glory of God.

Amen

Study 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter describes the life of a person who has the love that he should have for others. Let God show you how he wants to change you to make your life more consistent with love. List some changes you would like to see.