NOTES for Act 5:29
At first glance, everything is clear. Of course, God is the main one in our life; we must obey Him in everything. One can even say that all our troubles come from disobedience to God, since original sin itself is nothing other than disobedience. Do we not try to obey Him? True, it does not always work out... But that is all right, God will help, and everything will work out for us!
Stop, but what exactly will work out for us? Did the people who sent Jesus to the Cross and then judged the Apostles consciously disobey God? And the people who stoned the first deacon Stephen were absolutely certain that they were fulfilling the will of God. Look into the history of the Church: intolerance, crusades, the Inquisition - these too were supposedly done out of obedience to God. And present-day terrorism also tries to declare itself holiness, even if Islamic!
How are we to understand that what we consider the will of God truly is His will? There is a seemingly simple answer: check it against the Bible. But recently someone told me that both warring extremist parties in Northern Ireland justify their murders and bombings with quotations from the Bible! The point is not only what is written in it, but also how we understand it, and that is already the sphere of the Spirit's action. Remember how Jesus, when His disciples wanted to interpret a biblical passage incorrectly, said to them: "You do not know what spirit you are of" (Luke 9:55)
So how are we to obey God?