Romans 2:25-27, Obedience is better than ritualistic sacrifice

So, what does God want from you? Does He want a mindless robot who does everything He wants when He wants it? Or, does He want you to love Him as much as He loves you? Paul address this directly with those in the Roman church by telling them it really doesn’t matter if you keep all the religious rituals if your heart isn’t right with God. He addresses the Jewish ritual of circumcision and says that it has its benefits but if someone uncircumcised is more obedient to God’s commands then they are then they are the one in right standing with God. Just going through the motions and doing religious rituals because we know we are supposed to, is not what God wants from His creation. God wants fellowship and communion with His creation, which drives us to be obedient out of love and not commitment. God only wants what is best for His creation.

This is something that Samuel the prophet had to let Saul the King of Israel know in 1 Samuel 15 when Saul offered a sacrifice to God out of disobedience. It cost Saul his kingdom and it can cost us our souls if we are not careful. It is easy to get trapped into the idea that God only wants sacrifice from us. He wants us to go to church regularly, He wants us to volunteer our time, He wants our money in the offering plate, and so on and so on. We can begin to tie our salvation to what we are doing for God instead of what God has done for us. God desires simply that we are lovingly obedient to His calling and purpose for our life because we know that God only wants what is best for us, so we want what He wants for us. Our hearts must be in line with the heart of God, when that happen, we don’t do things out of ritual we do them out of love, adoration, and gratitude for the One who gave up everything for us.