“Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the
voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed (the word of the Lord)
than the fat of rams.’” (1 Samuel 15:22)
As a Christian, I feel like a lot of people really enjoy this. Putting more weight into the sacrifice
than into obedience sounds simpler. Ultimately, it’s definitely much more difficult to obey
somebody who isn’t you. It’s more difficult to have someone else run your life. Sometimes, I
wish a good sacrifice could take the place of my iniquity so that I wouldn’t have to obey as
much. God always leads us to something great, but the work that it entails is so much greater
than sacrificing something smaller.
The Bible tells us that we have the perfect sacrifice in Christ so, ultimately, any sacrifice that we
give is not going to be as good as what He’s done. We must look at obedience because that’s
really the only play we have.
So, what does this have to do with ‘No Apologies’? My analogy is to take the word ‘sacrifice’ and
the word ‘apology’ and make them one and the same. We sacrifice to God for the things we’ve
done wrong as an apology for those things. I contend that God wants us to take responsibility
rather than make an apology. Responsibility and obedience are also one and the same. Think
about what responsibility is, especially as a pertains to what God wants for our lives. It’s
grabbing hold of the things we know we should do and embrace them as our own, as God has
asked us to.
We often apologize for our responsibilities. We call this empathy, but true empathy has nothing
to do with an apology and has everything to do with understanding the other person. When we
start with an apology, we have given ourselves an out. When we apologize for the
responsibilities God gave us, we are saying ‘I am sorry that I have to do what God is asking me
to do’. Ultimately, we are not taking responsibility for our actions.
Instead of blaming the devil for bad things, we blame God for the righteous things. This is
because sometimes people don’t like the righteousness of God and the things we are
responsible for. So, we apologize.
I think it’s important in this day and age that, in obedience, we embrace the responsibilities God
has given us. True calling comes with no shame. We do not make apologies for our testimony.
We do not make apologies for our faith. We do not make apologies for our obedience to God or
how we pray or how we worship or how we love one another.
In the scripture above, Samuel is talking to Saul, who was a king and strayed from his
responsibilities from God. Instead of trying to obey, he offered up apologies for his actions.
Though sacrifice was mandated by God, it was not the thing that was going to give him
righteousness. It was his obedience through faith.
God wants your heart, not your money. He wants your lives, not your guilt. He wants your
obedience, not your apologies. Stand firm in the person God has called you to be. Be loving, be
empathetic, be gracious, but don’t be sorry. Be obedient. God is good and His love for the world
is meant to flow through you.
Rene Solis is Director of Koinonia School of Ministry, a ministry of Koinonia Church in Hanford,
CA. He can be reached at ksm@kchanford.com or by calling 559-582-1528.