So runs a rousing chorus from the Baptist Hymn Book. ...for there's no other way to be happy with Jesus than to trust and obey. Should we perhaps think of ways to be more trusting and more obedient? Isn't that what the Christian life is all about?
Our parents, our teachers, our social values tell us that obedience is a virtue. But is it a New Testament virtue? A fifth of the occurrences of the word 'obey' in the bible are in Deuteronomy! "Behold, I set before you a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not known." (Deut 11:26-28)
In the Gospels Jesus did not ask anyone (apart from the wind and the sea) for obedience. Nor was he conspicuous for his own obedience to others. At Christmas we sing: Christian children all must be mild, obedient, good as he. But we hear how the twelve-year-old Jesus perplexed his parents by not going home with them after Passover, how Jesus sided with his disciples when they plucked corn on a Saturday, how he disregarded the commandments about contact with the unclean and criticized many of the accepted principles of law and order.
Yet Jesus was perfect in his obedience to God, if by obedience we mean seeing what God wanted from him. "Not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42) Not obedience to a string of instructions, but looking into the mind of God, and acting in accordance with God's plan. God has a plan for every one of us, and the deeper our love and our trust, the more easily we can see that this plan is for what is best for us.
What God seeks from us is cooperation, rather than obedience. Not the cooperation extorted by a paternalistic dictator ("I know what is best for you. You will cooperate.") - but the cooperation sought by a parent seeking a child's happiness.
For an example of willing cooperation, think of the players at a football or hockey match. They work together as a team. They have their own individual skills, but their best chance of winning lies in playing together. Their trainer or their manager can yell words of encouragement or of guidance from the sideline. But each team member must interpret these words, and weigh them against the way the whole team is playing.
Paul knew nothing of team games. His image of the Christian life is of a race, where "only one receives the prize" (1 Cor 9:24). But the prize is for all of us. The prize is the joy and peace of God's presence, "the upward call of God" (Phil. 3:14). To win this prize, we need to work together, as real fellow-workers (3 John 8), not hemmed in by a set of rules, but as partners in the bringing closer of God's reign on earth. May God's will be done!
HD