Obedience?

I know someone who believes with all his heart that he is obedient to the authority that God has placed over his life. I also know the person in that authority and know that he does not find his charge to be at all obedient except in doing things he wishes to do. The one in authority has tried in countless ways for a number of years to point this out but to no effect. The disobedience continues unabated while its very existence is denied firmly and without qualification. There is every evidence that the disobedient one is acting with a clear conscience.

Who is right? I would think it would be the one in authority who is able to judge whether or not the one in his charge is being disobedient. Sure, there might be times of misunderstanding, times when he has not made his direction clear. But surely not over the span of years, countless conversations, and various attempts at discipline.

Does this remind you of anyone? Most people I know believe they are obedient to God. Even atheists believe they are doing the right thing according to some moral code whose origin they can't quite explain. But perhaps more troubling are professing, Bible-believing, church-attending Christians who – despite years of admonitions from the pulpit, warnings from friends and the clear direction from the Word of God – pronounce themselves obedient when, by any objective reading of the God's Word, they are not.

The Bible tells us that a person’s conscience may become seared so that it is no longer effective – that the person may be able to walk in sin without even a twinge of guilt. I suspect it’s not an all-or-nothing condition: I think a conscience can become seared in a particular area.

So saying something’s right doesn’t necessarily make it so. Is there anyone in authority anywhere in your life who has been trying to tell you that your ways are not right? A boss, a pastor, a parent, a teacher or a professor? Can you still hear them?