Why Do Some People Not Follow God’s Word?
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Some people do not know to follow God’s word. They have never heard about the Bible and the message of Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus has commanded us to take the gospel into the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16). God wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). He does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). For those who do not know to follow God’s word, we must make an effort to reach them and tell them about it somehow. We could do this with missionary trips, our website, social media, printed media, and many other ways. It is great that the Bible has been printed in many different languages of the world today. Sending Bibles to other countries is a great way to inform people about God’s word.
Some people have been deceived not to follow God’s word. Sometimes that deception comes from other people. Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” False religion, false prophets, and false beliefs have been around for a long time. The Old Testament is full of people who were deceived to believe wrong things. John wrote, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 1:7).
Some people are deceived by their own hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” That is the fundamental issue between man and God; will we trust our own deceitful heart or God? When we “lean to our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5-6), we end up being deceived and as a result, we do not follow God’s word.
On a spiritual level, Satan is the great deceiver of mankind. In John 8:44, Jesus said, “When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Satan wants everyone to rebel against God, and he seeks to deceive people in any way that he can. Second Thessalonians 2:9-10 says, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Paul wrote, “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”
Some people do not want to follow all of God’s word. They are happy to acknowledge some of it as God’s word, but not all of it. Some will agree with the morality that is written in the Bible, but reject the more difficult teachings of the divinity of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, miracles, and doctrines of salvation and of the church. In Matthew 4, Satan tried to do that with Jesus. He gave Him part of God’s word, but not all of it. Jesus responded, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Satan tried to quote scripture. Jesus handled that too. This is most common today in the denominational world. Many will preach the parts of the Bible that they like, but they will not preach all of it. Paul said, “I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20), and “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Not only must we preach God’s word, we must preach all of it.
Some refuse entirely to follow God’s word. They do not believe in God and do not want the Bible telling them how to live their lives. These are atheists, skeptics, and agnostics. What they desire is to do what they want without anyone else saying otherwise. These have specifically rejected the Bible. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.”