Partial Obedience Equals Complete Defiance

1 Samuel 15:19 –22 (HCSB)

So why didn’t you obey the LORD? Why did you rush on the plunder and do what was evil in the LORD’s sight?"

"But I did obey the LORD!" Saul answered. "I went on the mission the LORD gave me: I brought back Agag, king of Amalek, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites.

The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder—the best of what was set apart for destruction—to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal."

Then Samuel said:

Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the LORD?

Look: to obey is better than sacrifice,

to pay attention ‹is better› than the fat of rams.

Many years ago I heard a sermon on this passage. I have never forgotten the title or the theme of that message. The title was: “The Peril of Partial Obedience.” The title itself was enough to convict me! The theme was: “Partial obedience is complete disobedience.”

You may have qualms that God commanded Israel to attack the Amalekites and completely wipe them out. I confess it bothers me—until I remember that this was part of God’s original order. Before entering Canaan He had commanded the Israelites to destroy all the people in the land. You remember they failed to complete the assignment. The Amalekites were some of those who should have been destroyed but still remained. They were a reprobate people, even sacrificing their children to their pagan gods. They were a cancer in the land that, if allowed to remain, would infect the whole nation of Israel. They needed to be thoroughly expunged.

Many of us are infected with Saul’s plague. We think that if we do most of what God says that sufficient. But partial obedience indicates a deeper and more dangerous problem. God sees it for what it really is and calls it by its true names: rebellion and defiance (vs. 23). We obey the part that is convenient, or the part that we can manage on our own. We leave off the part that requires faith and submission. But that little leaven will spread to the whole lump of dough. Disobedience always grows when left unchecked. The only safeguard against rebellion spreading is to obey all of God’s command.