"OBEY GOD AS RULER RATHER THAN MEN" (ACTS 5:29)

The Bible exhorts husbands to love their wives, wives to submit to their husbands, children to obey their parents and everyone in general to submit to people in authority (Ephesians 5: 21-33 & 6:1-9; Romans 13:1-7). Are there no limits to these laws? 

🔯 The first man Adam loved his wife so much that he ate the forbidden fruit she offered him. God blamed him for listening to the voice of his wife to the detriment of keeping His laws (Genesis 3:17-19). Listening to your wife is not a sin (as can be seen in the cases of Abraham at Genesis 21:8-13 and the Shunammite woman of 2 Kings 4:8-10) but don't go against God's laws.   

🔯 Jezebel was a very caring wife. She told Ahab, " Why are you so sad that you refuse to eat?" and got him Naboth's vineyard after killing Naboth and his sons (1 Kings 21:1-29 ; 2 Kings 9:26). Ahab was the worst human being as at then, "egged on by his wife Jezebel"(1 Kings 21:25). At the end of the day, the couple, their 70 sons and all of Ahab's relatives in Israel were wiped out (1 Kings 21:20-26 & 22:37-40; 2 Kings 9:22-37 & 10:1-11,17). Even their daughter Athaliah , who had married away into Judah's royal family (2 Kings 8:16-18,24 and 11:1), killed most of her own children and grandchildren before being executed (2 Kings 11:1-16). Contrast Jezebel with Abigail, who used godly wisdom to save her family from annihilation (1 Samuel chapter 25). 

🔯 The young prophet at 1 Kings 13 disobeyed God's clear commands and paid dearly for it because an older prophet said,"An angel told me to bring you to my house to eat and drink". How can God tell you to do something, an "angel" (or demon) will "tell" somebody to make you do the opposite and you will obey the human being? Why not pray to God for confirmation? Deuteronomy 13:1-3 warns us against prophets who try to make us disobey God ,even if their signs or portents come true. Eve ignored God's command and listened to the serpent (the Devil in disguise) - Genesis 3:1-7; Revelation 12:9. God did not spare her for being fooled by a fallen angel. "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

 

📣 Nobody should be so important or dear to you to make you offend God. No wonder Jesus said at Matthew 5: 29-30, "If your eye or hand is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one of your body parts than for your whole body to land in hell". Since our bodies are God's temples which are not to be destroyed ( 1 Corinthians 3:16-17), Jesus is telling us to abandon evil associations (1 Corinthians 15:33) here. Where no Bible principle is violated, obey your superiors and consider the feelings of your equals and subordinates. But never displease God to please ANY human being.