Striking a Balance Between Duty and Delight
Serving the Church is hard. Staying motivated when things are not going well is especially difficult. Studying for the Sunday school lesson seems pointless when we are not even sure if anyone will attend the class. Striving for excellence in our given position can can be grueling when the only reason we accepted it is because no one else would. If we serve God long enough, we will experience these things, and the only thing that keeps us going at times is the sense of duty we feel toward God and His Church.
Serving the Church is also delightful. Watching our local church experience healthy growth is exciting. Leading someone to Christ after years of evangelism is rewarding. Seeing a child experience the “Aha!” moment while teaching Sunday school brings “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” as the hymn says. Moments like these make the discouraging, frustrating, and disappointing times worth it. “If only this happened more often!” we think.
The difficulty is in striking the balance between the duty we have and delight seek. On the one hand, when duty is all that motivates us, we eventually get frustrated and bitter toward other Christians and God. Invariably, we burnout, quit serving, leave church, and possibly abandon the faith out of frustration and anger.
On the other hand, when delight is all that motivates us, we lose our staying power when things do not go as planned. Sometimes ministries struggle to get off the ground. People change slowly. Evangelism takes time (maybe years) before people come to Christ. Discipleship is a lifelong process. There are seasons of sowing and reaping. “Be instant in season and out of season,” said Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:2). Whatever the season, we must continue to serve. But if all we live for is delight, we simply won’t last.
Both duty and delight are necessary. They must be it experienced together, not alone. How, then, do we strike a balance between the two?
The Call of Duty
Duty is a word that has been lost in Christian vocabulary. It is simply undesirable. The word connotes obligation—“must do, have to.” Such ideas are unpleasant since our world tells us we should make decisions based on how we feel at the moment. “If you don’t want to do it,” we are told, “then you shouldn’t have to do it.” No one wants to feel obligated to do something, so we flee obligation at all costs, often destroying families, marriages, ministries, churches, and the spiritual lives of many Christians in the process.
This thinking is severely flawed. God often calls Christians to undesirable tasks, but He calls them nonetheless. In Exodus 3:1-4:17, He called Moses. Not only did Moses feel inadequate and incapable of leading the Israelites out of Egypt, but he also made excuses as to why he should not go. After God patiently answered each objection, Moses finally pled, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else” (4:13). Despite his reluctance, Moses eventually answered God’s call.
Likewise, Jeremiah the prophet was called to an undesirable ministry. He felt burdened to serve God, yet experienced suffering. “There is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot,” he said in regard to proclaiming God’s message (20:9). However, his heart was torn: “Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (20:18) In what remains of the book, Jeremiah confronted godless kings, false prophets, and a sinful nation. He pronounced judgment upon Judah, the pagan nations, and Jerusalem itself, yet had the privilege of announcing the restoration of God’s people through a promised New Covenant (30:1-33:26). Though oft called the weeping prophet, Jeremiah was also a faithful prophet.
Finally, Jesus Himself was called to a task He did not necessarily want. In Gethsemane, with His soul feeling “very sorrowful, even to death” (Mt. 26:37), He asked the Father three times to let the cup pass from His presence (Mt. 26:36-46). When it did not pass, Jesus obeyed the Father by dying on the cross for mankind’s sin. “Not as I will,” He said, “but as you will” (Mt. 26:39). Not only did Jesus desire to do the Father’s will, we can observe, but felt compelled to do it, even if to His own loss.
What these examples illustrate is that God calls Christians to do things they find undesirable. In fact, Scripture tells us to expect it at some point. When it does, God expects us to trust Him in obedience as countless followers have done before. By surrendering to His will, we humbly confess God to be God and submit to His Lordship regardless of the task. Our obedience, in turn, means that we willfully trust God to supply what we lack.
The Need for Delight
Kingdom service cannot merely be driven by duty, however. It must also be motivated by delight. Whether in Christian service or spiritual growth, Christians often feel like the Christian life is duty. Maybe we are called to obey God in a time of suffering or cultivate a spiritual discipline that is unnatural to us (both quite common). In such times, we are prone purely to follow God out of duty and not delight.
But what we do not realize is that God did not create us to function this way. Without delight, our spiritual life becomes one of drudgery and resentment. In turn, God’s commands become burdensome tasks we are called to fulfill, but unable to complete. Instead of serving thankfully, all we think about is how long we must continue. We find ourselves embattled. We desire to serve God, yet long for relief from His tasks. In the end, we feel an overwhelming desire to flee from God’s call, but guilt for wanting to do so. We do not know what is worse: the guilt over quitting or the burden felt if we continue. What, then, are we to do? How do we delight in things that aren’t necessarily delightful?
Scripture tells us that we can find delight in obeying God, even when it is undesirable. “I will delight in your statutes,” and “Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it” (Ps. 119: 15, 35). The psalmist attaches no stipulations to what commands he finds delightful. He merely delights in serving God. Why? Because obeying God means doing His will. King David makes this connection: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:8). God’s will is manifested in His law. When we obey Him (no matter what), we fulfill God’s will.
This was essentially what motivated Jeremiah to fulfill his calling despite persecution. He said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16). There is something delightful about pleasing God no matter what He asks. This is why Jesus could say, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:30), but also, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk. 8:34). Jesus found joy in showing the world that God is God and that obeying Him is to proclaim that He is God. Jesus assures us that this can be our joy too.
Companions, Not Opponents
We are duty bound to follow God’s call. Without duty, delight has no anchor. Our emotions fluctuate and joy escapes us at times. Sometimes the things God calls us to do aren’t joyful—at least, not at first—and the only thing that keeps us going is our sense of duty. This is both good and necessary. However, following Christ cannot be characterized by duty alone. It must be accompanied by delight in doing God’s will. Otherwise, it is heavy and wearisome, and this is not God’s intention. We can neither have duty without delight, nor delight without duty. The two go together.
Our final duty, then, is to delight in God’s will.[i] Anytime we obey God, we display our faith, and that pleases Him. When we know that we have done right by Him, we find delight in knowing that He is pleased. Like a son who finds joy in simply making his father proud, Christians can find joy in simply pleasing God because it makes Him proud. Simply put, we delight in pleasing the Lord—period. His joy is our joy. This brought joy to Moses, Jeremiah, Jesus, and it can to us too. When we do this, we fulfill, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, our chief end: “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
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[i] This is essentially John Piper’s point in his books, The Dangerous Duty of Delight: Daring to Make God Your Greatest Delight (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2011) and Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonists (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2011). His main premise is: God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him. For Piper, joy is not only a result of following God, it is also the Christian’s duty to pursue joy in God.
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About the Author: A native of Columbus, Georgia, and a former contributor to the Helwys Soceity Forum, Jeremy Craft pastors First Free Will Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florda. He holds degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.) in South Hamilton, Massachusetts; and Welch College (B.S.) in Nashville, Tennessee. His interests include theology, history, and music.
July 3, 2015
Jeremy, out of the crucible of personal experience, you have spoken well to the ministerial survival skills of discipline (duty) and delight. Ultimately we live and labor for an audience of One. Thank you for your faithfulness to model and remind us.