John 15:13 ( NKJV )
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
Yesterday we began to discuss the idea that, as Christians, we have a duty. It is not popular to bring duty into the equation when we talk about our relationship with the Lord. Some feel that to serve God out of duty means we are not serving him out of Love. Nothing could be further from the truth. Love and duty almost always go together.
I am married. I married my wife 38 years ago because I loved her then and I still love her today. We did not marry out of duty, but there are many things marriage requires that are a duty. It is my duty to lay down my life for her (Eph 5:25.) I don’t do that just because I happen to feel like it. I certainly don’t stop doing it on the basis of what my emotions tell me on any particular day. I do it because the bible tells me to and because it is the right thing to do. Of course this is not the common point of view in the world today, but it is the Bible.
I have a duty to care for my children. When they were all living at home, their welfare took precedence over my desires or pleasure. I had to do what was right for them. If it meant I did without, so be it. If it meant that I couldn’t do something I wanted to do, that’s too bad because I had a duty.
Babies in particular can be very trying. The want what they want and they want it now. They don’t care that Mom and Dad haven’t slept much. When they need to be fed, they need to be fed. They don’t care that diaper changing is unpleasant. When they need to be changed you can’t pass the job to someone else because you don’t want to do it. It is a duty.
As they grow the duties get less messy but no less important or pressing. I taught all my children to drive. Although there was a certain satisfaction in seeing them take that very important step, I can’t say I enjoyed it. It was my duty to teach them. We choose to home school our children. For us it was necessary to make sure that they continued to follow God. We did it for 18 years. It was a burden, it was tiring and at times there were some difficult moments getting them to work, but for us it was our duty.
None of this meant we didn’t love them. As a matter of fact all these things were our duty because we loved them. We did many things we didn’t want to do because we loved them. We did without because we loved them. Love was the motivator, but in the moment to moment decisions we made duty was the determining factor. We didn’t always think of how much we loved our children. During the diaper changes, driving lessons or when we had to stand against their will in order to help them become conformed to the will of God, we didn’t wait for a feeling of how much we loved them. As a matter of fact there were certainly times when love was far from our mind, but we did what was needed because it was our duty.
Let me share on more example because it may be even more pertinent to our relationship with the Lord. I believe that the bible teaches us to honor our parents and take care of our widows. When my father died in 1979, we opened our home to my mother. My Mom was good person but she had lived a hard life. She could be difficult at times. For nearly 20 years she shared our home. We did this because of love, but there were many times when duty carried the day because “love” feelings could not. It never crossed our minds to send her anywhere else until her medical care became far more than we could handle. She spent a week in a nursing home and then went home to the Lord.
You see love and duty are very much related. We often enter relationships because of love. If we are going to stay and grow in them we must incorporate the idea of duty. There are some things you just have to do not matter how you feel. We understand this in many areas of life but we seem to think it should not apply to the Lord. The bible does not teach this.
In the above verse we see that there is no greater love that has ever been given to humanity than the sacrifice of Jesus. He loved us enough to die for us. We come to Jesus because of His love for us and because that love causes a response in us. We love Him. However too often that love is only active when we feel it. We think that to do spiritual things we must feel them. I have discovered that the power comes when I obey the Word in spite of my feelings.
I love the Lord. I need to act like it by doing those things that are my duty. I need to give myself to His Word. I need to obey His commandments. I need to do the service His Word commands. I need to do my Christian duty. This applies especially to the church. Do I attend just when I feel like it or do I attend because the bible says not to forsake coming together (Heb 10:25.) Do I fulfill my financial and work obligations to the church because of a feeling or because the bible teaches it is my duty. I believe it must be the latter. As we obey, feelings will come, but if we wait for feelings obedience will rarely come.
I believe real victory comes when we marry our love for God and His love for us to the concept of duty. We do what’s right because it’s right. We fulfill our obligations to God, to His Word and to His house, because it is our duty to do so. We will not be tossed about by our emotions if we yield to duty. Love is the heart of duty. There is no greater love nor any greater duty than Jesus sacrifice for us. He did his duty. Will we do ours?
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