Why Are We Obligated to Follow God's Commands?

"Why are we obligated to follow God's commands?"

To respond by saying, "we are obligated to follow God's commands because God has commanded that we ought to follow His commands" is circular and does not work.

It seems to me that the best way to answer this question is by noting that God's commands correspond perfectly with ultimate reality. Adam Lloyd Johnson, in his book Divine Love Theory, has noted that ultimate reality is the triune nature of God which *IS* love (1 John 4:8). God is a maximally great being who is ultimate -- and necessary -- reality; all else is contingent upon Him. According to Jesus, God created contingent humanity on purpose and for the specific purpose to correspond to and resemble the love of the Trinity. Thus, there are objective facts about the existence of humanity irrespective of the subjective opinions from humanity.

This is what breathes fire into the Moral Argument (See New and Improved Deductive Moral Arguments).

That which corresponds to reality is objectively true, and that which does not is objectively false. Thus, it seems that it's just plain stupid not to heed God's commands. After all, God is not only a perfectly loving being who wants the best for you, He is also perfectly intelligent.  If one responds by asking: "Am I obligated to not be stupid?" No, but one is still objectively stupid (not corresponding to ultimate reality) if he or she chooses to rebel and reject the commands of Ultimate Reality. It seems obvious that we should not be stupid, but God gives us freedom to correspond to reality or to be stupid and miss the objective mark into the infinite future.

My advice: Don't be objectively stupid! Correspond to Ultimate Reality and resemble the love of the Trinity. The choice is up to you.

Stay reasonable (Isaiah 1:18),

Dr. Tim Stratton