I hear people stating this all the time, “Delayed obedience is still disobedience.” What does God say about that? Today’s passage in Matthew is all about obedience and disobedience. It starts with the chief priests and elders challenging Jesus to prove his authority. Instead of answering them he points to John the Baptist and makes the point that a whole bunch of disobedient people – tax collectors and prostitutes – heard him and obeyed. He also told a mini-parable about two sons. One said he wouldn’t obey his father but changed his mind and did obey. The other said he would obey and didn’t. The conclusion is clear. The one who actually did what the father wanted was the one who obeyed.
It should have been clear enough at that point that the current leaders of Israel were voicing their obedience to God but were not actually obeying. The prostitutes and tax collectors had been blatantly disobedient but were repenting and obeying. Just to make sure the leaders got the picture, Jesus told them the parable about the man who built a vineyard and leased it to tenants. This was to let them know that there would be severe punishment for disobedience. The tenants who would not obey and produce fruit for the owner would be put to death and the vineyard given to those who would obey.
If God considered delayed obedience as disobedience, then there would be no hope for any of us because we were all sinners and disobedient (Rom 3:23; Eph 2:2). However, in God’s grace he overlooks our past disobedience (Acts 17:30) and looks at whether our works demonstrate our profession of faith (James 1:22, 2:17). He not only overlooks that time of disobedience, but he enables us to be obedient to the end (Phil 1:6).
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