The word "obedience" is frequently used in traditional churches. When a pastor stands on a podium, he will always mention the word "obedience".
Obedience is the standard of a believer's spiritual quality. Obedience is also the key to the management and regulations of the church. Obedience is also frequently mentioned in the Bible.
However, the concept of obedience has been distorted in the shepherding and management of the church. Some pastors have deviated from the willingness of God. The obedience in their teaching has become a bundle to the believers.
Why? There are several reasons.
The Chinese pay much attention to rank and order. Some pastors have an incorrect interpretation and application of the Bible. Some church leaders don't even have a true understanding of obedience.
I recently saw a list of internal "house rules" of a church. The rules are set to regulate the love relationship of believers. The tone of the rules was rigid. They emphasize obedience to pastors over and over again. They say disobedience is just like the crimes made by King Saul, which is ridiculous.
There are some unreasonable spiritual words in the traditional church as well. The overemphasis on obedience is such a case.
In my opinion, the house rules of that church reflect the situation of many traditional churches. If someone is not obedient to authority, he will be considered a sinner. Although disobedience has nothing to do with morality or belief, it is regarded as a betrayal in the traditional church.
Do you still remember the Cultural Revolution in the history of China? There was a complete set of laws made in the period and the worst sin listed was not obeying the supreme leader, which was more serious than offending any kind of law.
Lin Zhao and Zhang Zhixin, two famous communists during Cultural Revolution, didn't commit the great sin. However, they had to die because they didn't obey the will of the supreme leader at that time. They also challenged the authority of the supreme leader.
The traditional church often stresses that believers should be obedient to the church leader and a wife should be obedient to her husband. The abnormal concept of obedience often leads to blind obedience and philosophy of servility.
For example, you may have heard of this familiar statement below:
"Even the leader is wrong, you should still be obedient. God will deal with the leader's error. You don't have the right to question your leader. Sisters in those traditional churches were also taught to tolerate any mistake of their husband."
It has distorted the true meaning of "obedience" in the Bible and it is spreading the philosophy of servility. It only pays attention to wife's obedience to her husband and ignores the teaching of obedience to each other in the Bible. In Ephesians 5:21, it said "You should revere Christianity and be obedient to each other"
We can also see that God has become the "scapegoat" here. I have studied the Bible for many years. I think God's sovereignty and the responsibility of human beings are inseparable. If we separate these two parts, we will mislead believers.
The overemphasis on obedience will also result in authoritarianism of church leaders. Believers are obedient to God and they are obedient to church leaders, who have taken God as their excuse of grabbing all the power.
God is invisible and the church leader becomes the visible representative of God in the church. We should be obedient to God on any occasion and never question God.
As a result, believers who take the church leader as the replacement of God will be obedient to their leader on any occasion and never question them. The church leader is put on the altar handily. The leader becomes a sacred idol and can't be offended.
This culture of obedience will finally suppress independent thinking and judgment of ordinary believers. They may even sacrifice their happiness of growth and life because of this culture.
Under this kind of distorted cultural background, the church leader will affect the believers' personal life to show his authority. The "house rule" of the church above is an example. The romantic relationship of believers must be approved by old pastors. What's worse, pastors have also set rules for believers' love affairs and closely watch them. If believers are not obedient to them, they are convicted of going against authority.
Believers who have been brainwashed can do nothing but blindly follow the rules. They lack the courage and chance to think independently. Many believers, especially sisters who suffer from their husband, are misled and hurt by the wrong concept of "obedience".
The overemphasis on obedience has a long history in China. Confucian culture calls for the importance of parental authority and orders of society.
Jesus Family, one of the largest Chinese Christian group in the 20th century, was run in the Confucian way. It was like a patriarchal family. Jing Dianying, the founder of Jesus Family, was honored as the highest authority and the most important parent in the church. Many less important "parents" were in charge of the affairs of different departments.
Believers' marriages were also entirely controlled by parents in Jesus Family. What's worse, they often made a crazy match of boys and girls. For example, they would order a beautiful lady to marry an ugly man. They would make an intellectual and an illiterate become a couple. It was natural that marriage of many Christians in Jesus Family were miserable.
I am not intending to completely deny the value of "obedience". I insist that obedience in accordance the teaching of the Bible is a good quality. I write this article to modify the wrong understanding and application of obedience in the traditional church.
I must clarify the concept of "obedience". Captives surrender to the enemy and live in shame, is it obedience? Wife of a feudal family tolerates the betrayal of her husband, is it obedience? The weak give in to the arbitrary power, is it obedience?
None of them is obedience.
However, they have become the truth in the traditional church. Some traditional churches only emphasize one-way obedience. People in inferior situations must listen to those superior to them. Believers must obey leaders. A wife must obey her husband. They never mention two-way obedience.
(Ephesians 5:21, 1 Pet. 5:5) "be subject to your elders."
In fact, Jesus pays more attention to a leader's role on serving believers. If we deviate from the willingness of Jesus, it will be easy to slide into a leader's authoritarianism and believers' servility.
Therefore, if we Christians want to grow up healthy, we must abandon such abnormal "obedience". Jesus has taught his disciples: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His [n]life a ransom for many."(Mat 20.25-28)
Jesus applied his words into practice. He sacrificed his life on the cross for us. He has never tried to manipulate us. He just encourages and motivates us with his love. Faced with God, we are like his children instead of his slaves. We feel freedom and joy instead in his arms.
Jesus doesn't want us to give up the right to think. He didn't devoid of our personality. Instead, he has given us grace and truth. He leads us into freedom, including the freedom of thinking. He will be delighted if we have a healthy, pious and independent personality. He hopes that we can follow him with such a personality.
Translated by Emma Ma
