No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Matthew 6)
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them. (2 Peter 2)
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone 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? (Romans 6)
There is something in human nature that resists commands to be obedient. It begins early, as soon as a toddler learns to say “no!” Commands of obedience and our deep desire for freedom seem locked in an eternal struggle. In a recent conversation a friend told me he didn’t like being bossed around and admitted he wasn’t a very obedient person. He liked being the one to make decisions. It was an honest confession and I think he spoke for many of us. None of us can avoid circumstances that require obedience—it’s simply part of life. Yet we secretly admire the rebel, the one who makes his or her own rules, and the heroic figure who gets away with it.
Living in relationship with others requires some form of obedience to the rules that govern relationships and communities. We cannot escape it. Children are taught to obey parents and teachers. Every workplace has a boss, and every boss has a boss. Witnesses in court must swear to tell the truth—an oath of obedience to the law. Elected officials take oaths of obedience to constitutions and the laws of the land. Military organizations are built on oaths of obedience. Physicians, lawyers, and other professionals swear obedience to codes of ethics. Marriage vows are oaths of obedience. Democratic nations cannot exist without adherence to the rule of law. Even more powerful than formal oaths are the social norms we were raised under—norms that impose rules of obedience, for good or ill, and dominate our subconscious. Most of us try to be good people doing the right things for the right reasons, which is itself a form of obedience.
“To thine own self be true,” wrote Shakespeare, and it’s good advice—if not taken to the extreme. Those who are obedient only to themselves are the most to be feared and pitied. They have a cruel dictator for a boss and are likely to be cruel to others in all they say and do. Psychiatric illnesses and addictions, too, can make some of us obedient to what the ancients would have called demonic forces.
The question then is: to whom or what is one obedient? How can one be obedient and also fully free? The answer is to place obedience to God’s way of love above all other demands of obedience.
Kings and emperors come in many forms—crowned and self-made—offering security, wealth, power, and position in exchange for obedience. But coercive punishment is their only tool of enforcement. Only God in Christ Jesus comes in love, out of love, offering abundant life through obedience to the way of love that Jesus laid before us. Jesus did not come to condemn or coerce but to save that we might have life and have it in abundance.
As Roman emperors clung desperately to the last remnants of their power, it became clear that those who desired to live free, full lives in the way of the Cross had to seek something entirely different. Saint Benedict had a profound insight when he recognized the universality of obedience as essential to forming a community where a full, free life in Christ could flourish. True freedom and full expression of the self in its most wholesome form are found when one surrenders in obedience to following Christ. Benedict did this through a simple rule of life for the monks in his monastery, creating room for full freedom to thrive.
Not everyone is called to the monastery—certainly not me—but for me and many others, his rule provides a useful guideline for daily life and for interpreting the kinds of obedience required of us in the secular world most of us inhabit. The rule set in place a routine in which time is set aside for adequate rest, work, study and reflection, relaxation, and nourishment. It establishes rules of behavior toward one another that honors the dignity of every human being as made in the image of God. It commands hospitality to the stranger and care for the sick and impoverished.
It is not a life removed from the world but one engaged in it—working to make God’s kingdom more present to others in whatever ways possible. It is a way of living in which we are called to be agents of God’s kingdom for others—not to force it upon them, but to embody it. It seeks the common good for all, with special care for the poor, the neglected, the oppressed, and the marginalized. One cannot go wrong crafting a rule of life for oneself based on the rule of Benedict.
Hello Steve. I bring greetings from St. Paul’s, Walla Walla. In response to today’s blog we thought that you would be interested to know that St. Paul’s has a Benedictine Way practice group. We have been meeting to study Benedict’s rule twice monthly since 2021. Today’s topic was holy obedience. It was a happy coincidence to share your reflections as part of our conversation today. Warm greetings and prayers to you from St. Paul’s Benedictine Way.