AMONG THE QUALITIES celebrated as evidence of a winsome Christian life are the likes of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. Not surprising, because—after all—these are some of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Chances are, you can find a Bible study somewhere about how to foster such attributes.

But there’s one characteristic in that list you probably won’t see extolled as worth pursuing. It’s the last one, self-control, which hints at a word that appears more than 1,000 times in the Bible. It’s one that doesn’t seem to get a lot of airplay: obey. In other words, do the right thing.

There’s something about it that seems so … well … strict. A bit of a downer. Who wants to hear about discipline and dutifulness? Especially when we can celebrate the joy, freedom, hope and healing, and all that lighter stuff that is part of the kingdom of God? Well, because in reality, we can’t have much of them without the other.

Obedience is a recurrent theme of the New Testament letter writers. Peter urged the believers “as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). This is not just about towing the line and doing the right thing because you should, about “being good.” It’s about being aligned and positioned for the best. In Isaiah 1:19, the prophet tells the people, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land” (emphasis added). There’s a conditional aspect to God’s blessings, one that rubs up against the idea of His unconditional love.

That’s why it’s so interesting to note how obedience seems to have been a factor in the explosive growth of the early church, when God’s power and presence drew many. Asked to explain some of what was happening in Jerusalem in those early days after the resurrection, Peter and the apostles told the Sanhedrin, “We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5: 32, emphasis added).

Want to experience the transforming power of God? Be obedient, just as Jesus was: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8); “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

As Ezra Taft Benson, the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture—who presumably knew a thing or two about cultivating good crops—put it: “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.”