Disobedience

The refusal to obey someone, especially someone in a position of authority. Scripture insists on the need to obey God at all times.

Disobedience enters people's hearts for various reasons

Disobedience comes through greed and lust

Genesis 3:6 See also Genesis 3:11–12; Exodus 16:19–20; Joshua 7:20–21; 2 Samuel 11:2–4

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

Disobedience arises from impatience

Exodus 32:23 See also Numbers 20:10–11; 1 Samuel 13:8–14

They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

Disobedience comes through fear

Jeremiah 43:2–7; John 7:13, John 12:42; Galatians 2:12

Disobedience results from pride and arrogance

Leviticus 10:1 See also Exodus 5:2; 2 Chronicles 26:16

Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command.

Unbelief is disobedience

Hebrews 3:12 See also Jeremiah 7:23–28; Romans 11:30–32 Romans 11:20 makes it clear that the disobedience spoken of here was unbelief; Hebrews 3:18–19, Hebrews 4:2, Hebrews 4:6

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.

Lack of love is disobedience

John 14:24 See also 1 John 2:9, 1 John 3:15

Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. The word that you hear is not My own, but it is from the Father who sent Me.

Disobedience to God leads to punishment

Punishment is applied to individuals

Genesis 3:17–19 See also Genesis 3:23–24; Leviticus 10:1–2; Numbers 20:12; 1 Samuel 28:18; 2 Samuel 12:14; Jonah 1:10–12; Ephesians 5:5–6

And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground — because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Punishment for the disobedience of unbelief

2 Thessalonians 1:8–9 See also Hebrews 2:2–3

in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might,

Nations are also punished

Genesis 15:14 See also Acts 7:7Deuteronomy 11:26–28; 1 Samuel 12:15 See also Exodus 32:35; Deuteronomy 28:15; Isaiah 13:11

But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.

See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse — a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

But if you disobey the LORD and rebel against His command, then the hand of the LORD will be against you as it was against your fathers.

Disobedience, like all sin, can be forgiven

Romans 5:19 See also Ephesians 2:1–5

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.