What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:15-16)
Funny, I was thinking about this idea when I woke up this morning, I did not know I would be studying this passage. I was remembering the time on ANZAC day a few years ago when I was put in charge of a banner party for one of the RAAF Squadrons, being a Cadet Under-Officer in the Australian Air Force Cadets. I remembered how while we were marshalling, a younger than middle-aged civilian, he had some connection to the squadron whose banner we would be carrying and was standing behind us, telling the Cadet Warrant Officer under my command that the way we had been told to march past the shrine was incorrect and dishonouring to the fallen and we should do it his way instead.
The elderly veterans did not say anything and soon he was telling his ideas to all my cadets and I was standing listening to him as well. I weighed what he was saying in my mind. I had no way to know whether what he was saying was right and true or not. I knew I was responsible for the banner and banner party and I wanted to do right by the veterans to honour them properly. I also knew I needed to make a decision quickly and stick to it, to show any weakness would be to surrender entirely to the will of this charismatic man who seemed to have some connection to the squadron and therefore more right to decide on this matter.
But I knew that if we did something different from everyone else, it would be very obvious and would make the parade look silly. I had been drilled to obey orders except for an extremely good reason, and this was not clear enough to disobey over. I quickly decided. I told the man he could bring his complaint to the parade marshals, but we would follow the instructions we had been given unless given different instructions by out commanders.
The Cadet Warrant Officer and cadets looked unsure, the former asked if perhaps I should go and ask the parade marshals about it. If I had shown weakness at this point I don't know what would have happened. But I said the man could go and ask them, we would obey our orders and that was an order. They still looked a little unhappy, the man was very convincing, but they were drilled in instant and instinctive obedience to orders and they did not question me.
The man began to now focus on cajoling me, and when that didn't work he quickly switched to trying to destroy my credibility. He questioned my right to be in charge, my competence, my character and when I stopped paying attention he started trying to undermine me to everyone else. One of the veterans tried to reason with him and he went a bit more quiet. From then on he muttered snide remarks about me loud enough for me to hear.
It was quite troubling, the remarks continued as we marched in the parade right until we got the point where he had the disagreement with the marching orders. We had been told to simply follow the people in front of us, and that was my intention, he had told us to turn at another point. But everyone was turning at that point, so all his lobbying was pointless, it turned out we were always going to do what he had been pushing for, we just didn't know it.
I never heard from him again, but to me it illustrates this about obedience. When things are difficult we depend on some particular thing to guide us. I depended on following my orders and my desire for unity in the parade and it worked out well for me. God wants us in life's decisions to depend on his commandments. I was the servant of my senior officers, I would do whatever they told me to do on the parade, because they gave me my position and my right to be there. But when a man who is not my master tells me to do something I can disregard it. If I had obeyed the man I would have showed that I did not consider my senior officers to be my masters, but rather my own ideas.
Obedience to God, especially when I don't understand why, is the ultimate sign of loyalty to Jesus Christ.
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