The Standard of Loyalty

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. (Isaiah 58:2)


21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. (1 Samuel 15:21-25)


The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. (Proverbs 15:8)

What was wrong with Saul? I've had a lecturer (not a Christian) who claimed Saul was really better than David. Though I've since realised that he can't have really believed that, it challenged me to consider why Saul was replaced as king. What is the reason that God removes a man from a position of great honour and power? I think the answer is here in this passage. When confronted with his sin, Saul admits guilt but shifts blame onto others and seems more interested in being restored than remorseful. Saul did not really think his sin was so bad or so much his fault; he was proud and therefore unteachable.
I have had the same kind of attitude often enough. But by God's grace I know what it means to really hate sin and want to overcome it. When I finally hate sin and want to overcome it, the battle of overcoming is already on the way to being won. Things get gradually or suddenly better from the point of real repentance. Jesus won me the privilege of repentance which only the Holy Spirit can give me, but if I refuse it and defend myself when God brings conviction, I destroy the means of my own victory.
God doesn't want us to just fulfil the superficial rituals of truth, he wants us to do that and also be changed deep down. Once the ritual was sacrifice, but loving obedience (which is greater) was also necessary. Now the rituals include churchgoing and baptism, but loving obedience is still the primary standard that Jesus wants us to live up to. Shaking off the rituals of true religion will not save you any more than keeping them, you need the Holy Spirit to transform you to a life of loving obedience to God's deep, searching commandments.