Mark 6:35-37 (NIV) By this time it was late in the day, so His disciples came to Him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to Him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

The disciples TOLD Jesus, Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat: We will never know what righteousness is if we come to Jesus and start telling Him what WE want Him to do. The Breastplate of righteousness only comes through a long lasting package of respect and faith. We may start out letting Him teach us righteousness; then somewhere along the way, we feel like we have learned enough; it is time to start taking the initiative. As usual, Jesus refuses to accept our advice. Not only does He refuse to do what we want Him to do, He tells us what to do.

Jesus told the disciples, You give them something to eat: If we have already started trying to advise Jesus, when He gives us our next assignment, we will argue with Him. We will say things like, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” The disciples were probably not really asking this question. They were probably telling Jesus that His instructions were ridiculous. They were basically saying that what He was suggesting could not be done. Their mind and reasoning were being presented as being superior to Jesus’. But as time went on and they continued to walk with Jesus, respect and faith started showing up more and more.

Jesus told Peter in Matthew 17:27 (NIV) But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for My tax and yours.

Peter didn’t argue; he just went and did what he was told; he obeyed. There was no argument and no mention of how strange the command was. This time he didn’t indicate that this didn’t make any sense. As a matter of fact, this made perfect sense to Peter. Why? He had seen a lot stranger things than this happen as a natural course of events. If Jesus said do it, then the wise thing was to go do it. If you argued, the size of your faith would be discussed. What is being said here is that exposure to Jesus’ life and ministry helps us learn to obey immediately. That puts us in the place where we are ready to “do what it takes” to put our breastplate of righteousness on.

Immediate obedience is a major part of the process of getting our breastplate of righteousness on. It is the same thing as hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Immediate obedience is, in fact, the ACT of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. We are so hungry and so thirsty for righteousness that we immediately start spending more and more time with Jesus. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more we obey immediately without arguing. That is the process of putting our breastplate of righteousness on. Let’s look at it again.

Mat 6:33 (NIV) OUR PART: But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, JESUS’ PART: and all these things will be given to you as well. We do this first part; and THEN, Jesus WILL do the second part. Once we start doing this, we stop trying to serve two masters. We serve Jesus, the Lord of righteousness; and, He takes care of our money issues.

Mat 6:24-25 (NIV) No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? This is total dependency on Jesus and His leadership into righteousness. We don’t provide for ourselves by going out and making sure we get what we want and need; that leads to unrighteousness. We consult Him and do what He tells us to do. As this happens, we start wearing our breastplate of righteousness on a regular basis.