Commentary on Acts 5:29 – Obey God Rather Than Men

We ought to obey God rather than men.

Acts 5:29

If a bishop or a priest who is of a noble character and has high prestige asks you to do a thing that goes against God’s requirements of men, what will you do? In this scripture, Peter’s words told us: We ought to obey God. But many times we obey men because of their status. Thinking back to the days when the Lord Jesus did His work, the Jewish commoners didn’t seek God’s will but believed that the Pharisees’ words were surely right because of their prominent standing, thus they followed them in condemning the Lord Jesus and nailing Him to the cross. As a result, their descendants were cursed by God. Their failure sounded the alarm for us. Exactly what does it mean to follow people? How can we obey God?

Here are two passages of fellowship for you: “What does it mean to follow God? And how do you put it into practice? Following God doesn’t just involve praying to God and praising God; what’s most important is to eat and drink the words of God and live according to the words of God, to act according to the truth, to find the path to experiencing the life amid the words of God, to accept God’s commission, to perform every one of your duties properly, and to walk the path before you as guided by the Holy Spirit. In particular, at critical junctures, when major problems befall you, there is an even greater need to search for God’s meaning, to be wary of being tricked by man’s doctrines, and to not fall under anyone’s control.”

“What does it mean to follow people? Following people means one follows the workers or leaders that they worship. God does not have much of a place in their hearts; they have merely hung up a sign saying they believe in God, and in everything they do they imitate or copy people. Particularly when it’s something major, they let people decide, they let people command their fate, they themselves do not search for God’s meaning, and they are unable to discern words that are spoken by people. As long as what they hear sounds reasonable, then regardless of whether it conforms with the truth they still accept it and listen to it. These are the manifestations of following people. Such people’s belief in God has no principles, there is no truth to their actions, they listen to whoever speaks sense, and even if their idols take the wrong path, they follow them to the very end. If God condemns their idols, then they will have conceptions toward God, and cling tightly to their idols. Their reasons are that ‘we should listen to whoever is in charge of us; the nearer power is better than the higher power.’ This is wretched logic, pure and simple, but such is the silliness of those who follow people.”

This fellowship tells us what does it mean to follow God and what it means to follow people. If we can discern what is following people, we’ll avoid being deceived by men.