The Joy of Obedience

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. JOHN 14:21

Hannah Whitall Smith is sometimes read as though her teaching were all about rest, and obedience were an afterthought. Her chapter on the joy of obedience in The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life shows the opposite. Rest in God and obedience to God were, for her, two sides of one love. The chapter opens with a sentence she had read somewhere and never forgot: “Perfect obedience would bring perfect happiness if we had perfect confidence in the power we obeyed.”

The key is the last clause. Obedience to someone we distrust is slavery. Obedience to someone we trust completely is freedom.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. MATTHEW 11:29–30

Why must I when others need not

She addressed a particular kind of reader: the Christian who has sensed God asking for a complete surrender and who shrinks from it. Such a person looks round and sees other believers walking with easy consciences in a wider path. Why, he asks, must I give up what they are free to keep? Why must I do what they need not do? It seems hard.

Her answer was to change the frame. That very difference, she said, is your privilege. Our Lord says that He manifests Himself to those who have His commandments and keep them. If He has shown you His mind on matters where others are still in the dark, it is because you are close enough for Him to tell you. Is that a burden or an honour?

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. JOHN 15:14–15

Friendship and love

She illustrated it from ordinary human relationships. In a friendship there is a proper reserve. Friends have separate lives and separate interests; they enjoy each other’s company, but they do not expect to know one another’s private wishes or to be governed by them. But when friendship becomes love, all that changes. The two hearts give themselves to each other, and separate paths are no longer possible. Things that were lawful before become unlawful, not because a rule has been imposed but because love has drawn so close. Each longs to know the other’s secret wishes, and to fulfil them.

Do such lovers resent the obligations love lays on them, she asked, or envy the cool friendships they see around them? They glory in them. So it is, she said, with the Christian whom Christ has drawn near. “What to them is lawful, love has made unlawful for you.” And far from being a hardship, this becomes the sweetest privilege of the soul.

As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. ISAIAH 62:5

His joy in us

She pressed further, to something she admitted she was hardly fit to speak of. We can understand that we need Christ; it is harder to believe that He desires us. But Scripture says it over and over. He rejoices over His people. Our love and devotion are, in some real sense, His reward for all He has suffered for us.

The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. ZEPHANIAH 3:17

So she urged her readers to let Him have all: to begin each day by asking how to order it to please Him, to give Him their reading, their friendships, their thinking, their time. And she promised that such a life would gild even the dullest existence. Watching a poor woman at her washtub one day, she wondered why such a hard and dreary life had to exist — and then saw that even that life, lived with Christ, could be glorious in every hour.

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. MATTHEW 12:50

Two cautions

This chapter must be read with two guard rails, both of which Hannah herself would have granted.

First, the language of a closer path than other Christians can breed pride. It is a short step from I am called to more to I am better than those far-off ones, and some holiness circles took that step. The Lord’s own word to those who have obeyed everything is humbling.

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. LUKE 17:10

Second, the idea that God shows some believers requirements He does not show others can turn into scrupulosity — a conscience burdened with rules God never gave. Hannah grew up among Quakers whose scruples over hats, bonnets and forms of speech she later described with affectionate irony in The Unselfishness of God. Personal convictions are real, but they are personal. We must not lay them on others, and we must not let the enemy lay false ones on us.

Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. ROMANS 14:4

The test is love. Obedience that grows out of intimacy with Christ is joyful and humble. Obedience that grows out of fear or comparison is neither.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 JOHN 5:3

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Is there something Christ has shown you that you have resisted because other Christians seem free of it? Ask whether it is His word to you.

2. Begin tomorrow by asking, Lord, how shall I order this day so as to please You?

3. Offer Him one specific area you have kept separate — your reading, your money, a friendship.

4. Examine your convictions: are any of them rules you now expect others to keep? Hold them more humbly.

5. Find joy in one dull duty this week by doing it consciously with Christ.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You have drawn me near and shown me Your mind. Forgive me for envying those who stand further off.

I give You all of myself — my days, my thoughts, my pleasures, my friendships — not as a burden, but as love gives to love.

Keep me from pride in my obedience and from rules You never gave.

Let my obedience be the glad answer of a heart that trusts You completely, and let me find my joy in pleasing You. Amen.