“I saw what you did! Don’t you know what that red sign means?” Mickey laughed heartily at my embarrassment and proceeded to relate his source of amusement to our fellow workers. While approaching an intersection on my way to work that morning, I had slowed down and looked both ways. Then, seeing only one car about a half mile away, I quickly accelerated past the stop sign and onto the main highway, performing what is locally called a rolling stop. Mickey was the driver in that other car. 

King Saul was commanded, “Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep . . . and all that was good” (1 Samuel 15:3, 9). I once heard a man describe Saul’s actions as incomplete obedience. But just as there is no such thing as a rolling stop, so there is no such thing as incomplete obedience. In God’s sight they are both disobedience. While Saul defended his actions, God told Samuel, “He is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments” (verse 11). 

Saul’s compromise of God’s clear commands eventually resulted in the loss of his kingdom, his soul, and his life. The consequences of sin are no different today. A fib is still a lie, inordinate desire is still covetousness, impure lusts still constitute adultery, and alternate lifestyles are still an abomination. As Saul and many other Bible characters learned tragically, neither the letter nor the spirit of God’s Word is to be trifled with. All of God’s commands are designed for our eternal good simply because He loves us. Let us obey them and sincerely thank Him for each one of them. 

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2:4

~ Pete Lewis