Article

Reframing Pragmatism: Why Obedience Is the Best Choice

Overview

Obedience is not the legalistic earning of blessings, as Andy Stanley argues in Irresistible, but a relational alignment with God’s reality grounded in love. Love and obedience are inseparable in both the old and new covenants. The difference between the covenants is not the introduction of love but the Spirit’s empowerment of obedience the law could not produce.

Key Takeaways

Andy Stanley misrepresents the old covenant in Irresistible by framing Israel’s obedience as transactional: “They obeyed to be blessed.” This depiction neglects the broader theological and missional purposes of obedience in both covenants. Paul’s quotation of the command to honor mother and father (Eph 6:2) shows the new covenant does not view this command as incommensurate with itself.

In Psalm 1, the blessed person’s “delight is in the law of the Lord” (Ps 1:2). This is not academic study but the joy of obedience. Following God leads to prosperity organically, not transactionally, emerging from allegiance and love.

Love is the foundation of both covenants. Jesus identifies the greatest commandment as Deuteronomy 6:5, and the second as Leviticus 19:18. The old covenant is rooted in unqualified loyalty to the Lord. Love is not a new covenant innovation.

The law was good, weak, and unified. It revealed God’s wisdom (good), did not transform human hearts (weak), and was not a collection of separable moral, civil, and ceremonial codes but a holistic guide to life with God (unified).

Saul’s failure in 1 Samuel 13, offering the sacrifice rather than waiting for Samuel, illustrates the law’s weakness. The law could instruct Saul on what to do but could not ensure that he trusted God. Ezekiel 36:26-27 promises the new heart and Spirit that empower obedience the law could not produce.

True faith is demonstrated through obedience (James 2:18). Modern discipleship must reclaim obedience as a relational response to God’s active presence rather than a mechanical rule-following.

Introduction: Recovering Obedience

Obedience has developed something of a bad reputation, often seen as rigid, legalistic, or tied to a view of the old covenant, if not the Old Testament, that frames Israel as trading obedience for blessing. Andy Stanley’s Irresistible advances a simple, yet incorrect, understanding of the old covenant along these lines. Stanley argues that Israel’s relationship with God is fundamentally transactional. He notes, “They [Israel] obeyed to be blessed…Israel obeyed old covenant rules and restrictions for their own sake.”

In support of this claim, Stanley highlights the command to honor mother and father in Exodus 20:12 stating, “Honoring Mom and Dad under the old arrangement wasn’t really for the benefit of Mom and Dad. It was about the security and prosperity of the kids. This is the nature, force, and tone of the old covenant.” Stanley’s argument here is less convincing given Paul’s quotation of this command in Ephesians 6:2 with the parenthetical comment “this is the first command with a promise.” Paul, evidently, didn’t view this command as incommensurate with the new covenant.

In any case, Stanley argues that old covenant obedience was self-serving, an attempt to curry favor with God to secure personal benefits. This depiction, however, neglects the broader theological and missional purposes of obedience in both the old and new covenants. Obedience reflects wisdom, an understanding about the governing dynamics of reality. Humans were designed to live in dependence on rather than independent from God. Obedience reflects this dependence, aligns God’s people to reality, and allows them to experience the benefits of living with the grain of the universe as opposed to against it.

Taking Pleasure in Obedience

In Psalm 1:1-2, the one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord” is blessed (Ps 1:2). This delight does not refer to one’s joy in studying or knowing God’s instruction. It isn’t simply an academic exercise. It reflects the joy of obedience. Rather than living like the wicked, sinners, and scoffers, the one who is blessed takes pleasure in following the Lord’s instructions.

The one who is blessed is not following a set of rules to receive a reward. Rather, he delights in God’s instruction, understanding that God’s ways lead to life, wisdom, and flourishing. The blessed life is one lived in accordance with God’s wisdom, not out of self-interest, but because obedience aligns us with God’s created order and reveals His goodness to us and through us.

Following God’s ways will result in the vindication of the righteous (Ps 1:3, 6). The wicked, however, “will not stand in the judgement” (Ps 1:5). Obeying God leads to prosperity, which is obviously beneficial to the one who obeys, but that benefit is not transactional or mechanical. It is organic. It emerges from one’s allegiance—love—for the God.

Love as the Foundation of the Old Covenant

When asked to identify the greatest commandment, Jesus points to Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The old covenant is rooted in an unqualified loyalty—love—to the Lord. Love, in other words, is not a new covenant innovation.

Again, we see this in Jesus’s identification of the second greatest commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus isn’t making that command up out of nowhere. He is pointing back to Leviticus 19 in which the command occurs twice with reference to one’s fellow Israelite (19:18) and to the sojourning stranger. The emphasis on love, not to mention Jesus’s appeal to God’s commands, in the old covenant suggests a high degree of continuity between the old and new covenants.

Stanley misrepresents the new covenant by contrasting it with a distorted version of the old. He claims that under the new covenant, obedience is no longer about self-interest or “doing right by God” but about loving others. Not only does this perspective separate love of God and love of neighbor, it also assumes an artificial distinction or discontinuity between old and new covenant love and obedience.

In reality, the Bible presents the old and new covenants in continuity. Consider, for instance, a passage like Ezekiel 36:26-27: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” While this passage assumes that the unredeemed human condition does not allow for the sort of obedience God requires, it also points to a time when the Spirit will empower obedience to God’s commands. Far from suggesting a distinction between obedience and love, Ezekiel frames the new covenant in terms of obedience.

Love and obedience are similarly connected in both covenants. John writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Jesus Himself taught, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Love and obedience are inseparable in both the old and new covenants.

The Role of the Law

The Old Testament presents obedience as the only reasonable response to living in God’s presence. The law was never about earning blessings; it was about living in alignment with God’s reality. Throughout Scripture, we see:

Disobedience leads to turmoil (Gen 3:1-24).

Seeking to serve God on one’s own terms is futile (Gen 4:1-16).

Making autonomous judgments about right and wrong leads to destruction (Gen 6:1-8).

Law-keeping is characteristic of faithful people (Gen 26:5; Ps 1:1-2).

Far from being a system of legalistic oppression, the law exposed the errant patterns of the world. It challenged assumptions about work (Exod 16:22-30), sex (Isa 57:4-5; Matt 5:28), materialism (Deut 25:4; James 1:27), and security (Exod 1:8-22). The law, then, was never about external rule-keeping but about shaping an allegiance to the one true God.

The Law’s Goodness and Weakness

If obedience led to wisdom and life, why did Israel so often fail to follow the law? The answer lies in the three characteristics of the law: it was good, weak, and unified. The law was good because it revealed God’s wisdom. It was weak because it did not transform human hearts. And it was unified, meaning it was not merely a collection of moral, civil, and ceremonial laws, but a holistic guide to life with God.

Saul’s failure in 1 Samuel 13 illustrates the weakness of the law. When Samuel did not arrive on time, Saul took matters into his own hands, making a sacrifice instead of waiting as commanded. His decision seemed reasonable, but it was still disobedient. The law could instruct Saul on what to do, but it could not ensure that he trusted God. This is why the new covenant promised a transformation of the heart (Ezek 36:26), not an abolition of the law.

Obedience as Discipleship

Jesus did not abolish the law; He fulfilled it (Matt 5:17). The “law of Christ” (1 Cor 9:21; Gal 6:2) is not a rejection of the Old Testament law but its re-contextualization for the church. The Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-11) demonstrate how obedience now takes on a new kingdom-shaped form, yet the fundamental call remains the same: love God, love neighbor, and live in God’s wisdom.

Modern discipleship must reclaim the biblical view of obedience. As James states, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). True faith is demonstrated through obedience. Intellectual assent is insufficient; experiential knowledge of God comes through living in obedience.

Obedience is not a mechanical following of rules but a relational response to God’s active presence. Imagine driving and seeing a detour sign that warns of a collapsed bridge. If you believe the sign, you take the detour. If you ignore it, you risk disaster. Similarly, obedience to God is about recognizing and responding to His guidance. It disrupts worldly patterns and calls us into new ones that align with His kingdom.

Conclusion

Obedience is about aligning with God’s design, not negotiating for blessings. It has always been rooted in faith and love, not in transaction. The old covenant called Israel to trust God, just as the new covenant calls believers to walk by faith. The difference is that, through Christ, the Spirit now empowers obedience in ways the law could not.

Following God may feel disruptive, but it is never risky. What is truly risky is following the patterns of the world, which lead to destruction. As we obey, we experience God’s goodness, align with His kingdom, and live as a testimony to His wisdom. Obedience is not merely about rules; it is about trust, allegiance, and participation in God’s life-giving order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was obedience transactional in the old covenant?

No. While Andy Stanley argues in Irresistible that Israel “obeyed to be blessed,” the relationship is better understood as organic and relational, not mechanical. Obedience aligns God’s people with reality, and the prosperity that follows is the natural fruit of allegiance to God, not a contractual exchange.

Does Andy Stanley misrepresent the old covenant?

Yes. By framing the old covenant as transactional and the new covenant as relational, Stanley creates a discontinuity between the covenants that the biblical text does not support. Love and obedience are inseparable in both, as Jesus’s appeal to Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 demonstrates.

What does Psalm 1 mean by “delight in the law”?

Delight in the law is not academic enjoyment of legal study but the joy of obedience. The blessed person takes pleasure in following the Lord’s instruction because that instruction aligns with God’s wisdom.

What was the law’s weakness?

The law was good because it revealed God’s wisdom, but weak because it could not transform human hearts. Saul’s failure in 1 Samuel 13 illustrates: the law could instruct Saul to wait for Samuel but could not ensure he trusted God. Ezekiel 36:26-27 promises the Spirit-empowered obedience that the law could not produce.

How does the new covenant change obedience?

Obedience itself does not change in character. What changes is the empowerment. Through Christ, the Spirit now produces obedience in ways the law could not. The covenants are continuous in their call to love God and neighbor; they differ in the means by which obedience is produced.

Andy Stanley, Irresistible

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (the promise of a new heart)

Psalm 1

Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 (the great commandments)

James 2:18 (faith and works)