1. Obedience to God’s Will and God’s Commandments

World Scripture

Whosoever submits his will to God, while doing good, his wage is with his Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they sorrow.
Qur’an 2.112

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I [Moses] command you this day for your good?
Deuteronomy 10.12-13

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken to the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15.22

Ritual purification, though million-fold, may not purify the mind. Nor may absorption in trance still it, however long and continuous. Possessing worlds multiple quenches not the rage of avarice and desire. A thousand million feats of intellect bring not emancipation. How then to become true to the Creator? How to demolish the wall of illusion? Through obedience to His Ordinance and Will.
Adi Granth, Japuji 1, M.1, p. 1 (Sikhism)

Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6.16-23

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

You should establish the heavenly law in yourself by absolutely obeying in your appointed duties, in your daily life, and regarding matters of the heart.
(45:88, June 13, 1971)

I am not the origin. My origin must be the Being who transcends me, and my purpose must be transcendent of myself. If it were not the case, how could I stand in a position to confront this world? My life did not begin from my parents, my society, tribe or nation, but from one transcendent Origin—God, the Absolute Being.

My will must be firmly connected to His transcendent, absolute Will. My motivation must not be tainted by any relative factors stemming from history, my circumstances or the society in which I live. Only when a person’s origin is linked to the transcendent Cause, the transcendent Purpose, can he or she leap, transcend and extricate him or herself from worldly circumstances.
(36:64, November 15, 1970)

When you are working in a company, what would happen to you if you took the attitude, “This work is inane. I will do what I want to do”? Living in America, suppose you took the attitude, “This country has too many laws that restrict what people can do. I will simply ignore them!” What would happen to you? No good can come from denying the rules of work or the laws of your nation. Likewise, no good can come from denying the tenets of religion. Everyone must come under the rule of law and the regulations of the workplace, but the laws we follow in the religious life are different. The former are promulgated in this world, but the laws of the religion originate from the other world. The religious life is actually to live in two worlds. Do you understand? You are actually living in two worlds.
(92:298, April 24, 1977)

When you go to the hospital, two beings know your condition well. One is the germ—that is Satan’s position. The other is the doctor—he represents God. Should you relate with the germ (Satan)? No, you should team up with the doctor (God). Then, you have to do what the doctor says. You must absolutely obey; that is the only way. What if you said to the doctor, “I’ll do whatever I want”? You would have to pay a price.
(189:49, March 12, 1989)

Father! We face the reality that we are far too distant from Thee—
sublime, majestic, dwelling at the center of the universe,
Lord of the ideal, Center of love.
To span this great distance we know the path that lies before us:
not the original, natural path but a path going the opposite way—
the grief-filled course of restoration.
(110:65-66, November 9, 1980)