The High Price of Doing Right

A young woman in Lagos works at a company where her supervisor pressures her to falsify records to secure a promotion. The money would help her ailing mother receive better medical care. She knows the right choice, but obedience will cost her the promotion, the money, and perhaps her job. She weeps in prayer, torn between duty to her mother and duty to her God.

Peter writes to believers suffering unjustly, and his words cut to the heart of our struggle. He says that patience under wrongful suffering is “thankworthy”—it finds favour with God. But notice the distinction: there is no glory in suffering for our own sins. The true test of faith comes when we suffer for doing what is right.

This is the costly obedience that separates the nominal Christian from the committed disciple. It is easy to obey God when obedience brings comfort, promotion, and approval. But what happens when righteousness demands we lose something precious? When honesty costs us a contract? When sexual purity costs us a relationship? When speaking truth costs us our reputation?

Peter anchors this difficult call in the example of Christ Himself. Jesus “suffered for us, leaving us an example.” He did not sin, yet He bore the cross. He was innocent, yet He endured the shame. His obedience was perfect precisely because it was costly—it cost Him everything, even His life. And yet, through that costly obedience, He ransomed the world.

In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” A sacrifice, by definition, costs something. It demands we surrender what we want for what God requires.

The widow in Mark 12:41-44 gave her last two mites—her entire living—into the temple treasury. She had nothing left. But Jesus saw her costly obedience and commended her above all the wealthy givers. Her obedience was worship because it was sacrifice.

For the young woman in Lagos, and for us, there is comfort in knowing that God sees and honours such obedience. He does not ask us to suffer meaninglessly, but to suffer purposefully, following the footsteps of Christ. When we obey Him at great cost, we testify that He is worth more than wealth, reputation, comfort, or security.

Today, you may face a choice where obedience is costly. Before you compromise, remember: God watches the obedience that hurts, and He rewards it with something no earthly loss can diminish—His approval and His presence.

Lord, grant me courage to obey You even when it costs me dearly, trusting that no sacrifice made for Your sake will ever be forgotten or unrewarded.