DUTY

 

A duty is an obligation owed because of a commitment made. We fulfill our duty by working appointed hours, completing assigned tasks, & sometimes even going above and beyond. Yet, why is it a sin to some to call our faith a duty? When we finish the race our only comment should be, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” If faith is not a duty to you, then perhaps you owe God less than the rest of us.

I want God to say, “Thank you, Mike, for all your hard work,” but I know that’s selfish and a lie. I don’t work hard, but that’s because I don’t really know what “hard work” means. People say, “You know you’ve worked hard because you feel it in the pit of your stomach.” I’m no doctor, but I don’t think our stomachs have crevices that house “quality of work sensors.” I can’t tell my students, “You know you’ve worked hard on this paper because you just feel it,” nor can I tell them how many hours equate to efficiency—it’s not that simple. So how do we know when we’ve done our spiritual duty?

The “well done(s)” seem to be God’s domain while the boot in the rear seems to be ours. After all, James tells us that a man is “justified by what he does and not faith alone” (Jas 2.24) because faith in God can only be evaluated (and thereby justified) by God. But faithful deeds like Bible study, fellowship, witnessing, discipling, giving, serving, etc. are all actions which show our faith to people for people. My duty is not to be evaluated by the people I serve, but those I serve will ultimately be my evaluation.