Why do you keep on saying that I am your Lord, when you refuse to do what I say? (Luke 6:46 CEV)
Disobedience to God is never a wise choice
I am a former schoolteacher. I once had a principal who had students repeatedly in his office for misbehaving in the classroom. His favorite saying was, “you always do what you always done, you’re always going to get what you’ve always gotten.” Unfortunately, many of them just kept getting what they had always gotten.
I have had students in my classroom that broke the rules, and I had to discipline them. Occasionally, a student would violate the regulation again the next week, and when I gave him the same consequence, he looked at me like he had never heard of the rule or the punishment.
I should have given this student two consequences: the infraction and the other for being so clueless.
We can think about our youth and be amazed at how unaware they are of the consequences of their actions, but the truth of the matter is that God’s people in the Old and New Testaments have been just as lax in keeping God’s law.
The Prophet tells us in Jeremiah 11:7-8 how repeatedly disobedient Israel was to what God told them to do. God clearly explained to them the consequences of their disobedience, yet they seemingly were oblivious that they would always get what they had always gotten, the discipline of the Lord.
We must keep the spirit of the law, love. “Whoever has loved others has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8b NIV), but discipline is part of God’s love.
A balance between God’s justice and mercy keeps us from being clueless.