Obedience /= lack of personal autonomy. God is a benevolent creator who encourages curiosity and creativity. He’s not a Hitler-like figure. So obedience is usually just doing good and beautiful things. As we see what the world is really about, giving sacrificially to the poor or laying down our lives for others becomes a joy rather than an obligation. So obedience leads to true freedom to be in alignment with how we were created. Example: God says take care of your body. When we eat Cheetos and watch porn, it seems mean that he “deprives” us by saying not to. But when we give it up we find deeper health and relationships. Obedience -> true freedom

One does not obey a good leader. One follows their lead. Obedience is the blind acceptance of whatever they say, even when it contradicts what they do. The Bible even mentions that the ones who are true “struggle with God,” in other words they argue and fight with themselves over what is right, in finding the truth. The church as an institution has bastardized the true message and turned it into a way to get people to listen to the church. When the virtues of the Bible would explicitly demand you question them.

On the assumption that God is smarter and wiser than me, there are things that he comprehends that, not only do I not comprehend, I'm incapable of comprehension. And on the assumption that he is good, sometimes obedience is what is called for from God. God being both perfectly wise AND perfectly good, while I am imperfect in both those areas. Obedience to him different than obedience to humans. Analogously: you probably do this in all sorts of areas. I suspect if I were to give you a ride in my airplane, you'd defer to my wisdom on how to safely land. Is that deference different than obedience?

OBEY, verb transitive [Latin obedio; Gr.] 1. To comply with the commands, orders or instructions of a superior, or with the requirements of law, moral, political or municipal; to do that which is commanded or required, or to forbear doing that which is prohibited. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Ephesians 6:1. Servants, obey in all things your masters. Colossians 3:20. He who has learned to obey will know how to command. 2. To submit to the government of; to be ruled by. All Israel obeyed Song of Solomon 1:1Chron. 29. Daniel 7:27. 3. To submit to the direction or control of. Seamen say, the ship will not obey the helm. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Romans 6:12. James 3:3. 4. To yield to the impulse, power or operation of; as, to obey stimulus. Relentless time, destroying power, whom stone and brass obey