Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice

By: David Hopkins

Thu, Mar 08, 2012

The practical way to follow the Bible based saying "obedience is better than sacrifice".

1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

In the last two non-tutorial based articles I wrote about the fruit of the spirit and the sacrifices of righteousness.

And in this article I'm putting them against each other to write about how the fruit of the spirit are better than the sacrifices of righteousness according to scripture written in the old and new testaments.

That being demonstrated by learning and practicing the fruit of the spirit to become more obedient to the will of God much more than the sacrifices of righteousness.

And also by the sacrifices of righteousness generally being practiced more often than the fruit because they seem a lot more practical, and are beneficial, but don't carry as much weight.

Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Notice how Jesus called judgment, mercy and faith the more important matters of the law.

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

It also appears that Jesus was referring to a verse from the prophet Micah.

Being Obedient Is a Bigger Sacrifice Than Sacrificing.

The point of the matter is practicing things like walking in love, joy and peace is more acceptable to the Lord than things like going to church, paying tithes and even praying.

Because those things take a lot more wisdom, mercy and faith building and involve the proper way to treat people and respond to people in certain situations, therefore makes you more obedient to God, and like God, which of course, pleases God more.

For instance.

You can read the Bible and fail to understand what it meant, then go against what it says and displease God.

You can pray with the wrong attitude and lust in your heart and not receive what you asked for in prayer.

You can fast just because you want to lose weight and look important to the church faculty.

You can go to church just because someone makes you go or it's a holiday.

You can even give tithes just because you're super rich and ten percent is a drop in the bucket.

But when you operate in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance there is no way you can do it in a way that displeases God or isn't beneficial to everyone involved.