January 23

If then I be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts. - Malachi 1:6.

IT becomes us to obey whatever God commands us, and to do whatever he enjoins. First, Because he has a right to command us. He is the sovereign; we are his subjects. He is the master; we are his servants. He is the father; we are his children. A king has no such right to the obedience of his subjects; a master has no such claims to the duty of his servants; a father has no such claims to the regards of his children, as God has to all our homage. The reason is, they have not, and never can have, an absolute property in us. But God has, for it is “he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” We derive from him our being, our powers, our possessions, all our enjoyments, and all our hopes. We are therefore his by infinite ties, and bound to serve him. And we cannot complain that we do not know what his demands are upon us. He has shown us what is good. He has told us what he has required of us. He has given us his word. We have his will, and to this we may repair, unawed by every authority in the universe unless his own, to know what he enjoins upon us. We, therefore, know his will; and to “him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” The servant which knoweth his lord’s will, and doeth it not, “shall be beaten with many stripes.”

Secondly, Because all his commands are reasonable; none of them are arbitrary or tyrannical. We may not always be able to perceive the reasons on which they are founded; but there are reasons, and these reasons are now satisfactory to him, and by and by will be more apparent and satisfactory to ourselves.

Thirdly, Because all his commands are beneficial. If a Christian serves God disinterestedly, even then he cannot serve him for naught. All that he enjoins upon us has special regard to our welfare, as well as his own glory; and “in keeping his commandments there is great reward.”

And Fourthly, we should render obedience unto all God’s commandments, because they are all practicable; they all imply a power to obey, if not already possessed, yet attainable; if not in nature yet in grace; if not in ourselves, yet in him whose authority we recognize, and who is always accessible. Thus while we are not sufficient of ourselves, even to “think anything as of ourselves, our sufficiency is of God;” and while “without him we can do nothing,” yet with his strengthening us we can “do all things.” His commands, therefore, are so many intimations of success.