An Act Of Obedience Series

Some of the best things in life can be so bad. It is somewhat shocking, but Lewis B. Smedes in his

book Caring and Commitment points out that even commitment can be a bad thing. The purpose of

the book is to get Christians more committed, but he points out the negative side of this very positive

virtue. Albert Speer in his memoirs, Inside The Third Reich, tells of how he made a commitment to

Hitler and spent most of his life devoting his brilliant talents to the building of his evil empire. It

was blind commitment, and he never repented until it fell and he was forced to face his folly.

Just being committed is not itself good, for evil people are often totally committed to their awful

goals. Nebuchadnezzar was tricked into committing himself to throw Daniel in the lion's den. He

kept that commitment even when he realized it was folly. Herod did the same thing when he was

forced to cut off the head of John the Baptist. He regretted his commitment, but he went ahead and

did it anyway. Here were men who were committed to their commitments, and they would not alter

their path even though it was costly and agonizing for them. This should be noble, but it was not. It

was stupid. They did evil and violated their own conscience because they could not see that doing

what is right and good and God's will is more important than keeping commitments.

If you take a fork in the road and discover 5 miles later that you made a mistake, you do not say,

"I have made a commitment to this way, and I'll stay on it wherever it goes." This is what the

followers of Jim Jones did, and they followed him in drinking poison and the mass suicide. That

was commitment alright, but it was also stupid. The wise person says, "When I make a commitment

to the wrong way, and I see it as wrong, I go back and find the right way and forget my

commitment." Commitments made in ignorance are not more important than truth. Commitments

to what is bad are not more important than what is good.

Commitment is a conditional virtue. It is only good when the goal one is committed too is good.

If the goal is bad, then the commitment to it is also bad, and it is a vice. The world is filled with

committed people who are all the more evil because of their commitment. They are committed to

that which is out of the will of God. We want to focus our attention on one of the most committed

people in the Bible whom God honored in a very special way because he was so committed to what

was good, right, and the will of God. He made commitment a virtue that God was so pleased with

that God by special providence saw to it that he was brought into the kingdom of God by faith in

Jesus Christ. God is committed to seek and to save those who are committed to finding the Way.

The Ethiopian Eunuch was a long way from home because he was committed to finding out

about the God of Israel. We don't know who told him about the God of the Jews, but he had come

all the way across Africa and the vast desert wasteland in order to get t Jerusalem to hear and see for

himself, and to worship this God of Israel. He had also invested a sizable chunk of cash in

purchasing a copy of the book of Isaiah. There were no printing presses, and so copies were made

by hand, and the cost a great deal of money to purchase. This man had a hunger to know the will of

God, and so he bought this expensive portion of the Word of God. There was so much he did not

know, but he was committed to learn all he could about God.

God was so impressed with this man's commitment that he called Philip a way from a great

revival in Samaria to take the Gospel to this one man crossing the desert. Philip was seeing great

crowds come to Christ, and so great was the fruit of his labor that the Apostles in Jerusalem sent

their two big guns-Peter and John-to check it out. It was amazing what was happening there and it

was all happening through the labor of one who was not even an Apostle. Philip was not even

ordained as a Pastor. He was a layman who had been chosen as one of the first deacons of the

church. He had the gift of preaching, however, and so when the problem with the widows being

cared for had been solved, he took off preaching the Gospel, and God blest his ministry.