Chapter 20. Type 2: Dutiful Servant Obedience. These are those who are of God, yet they are not properly sons, but servants. They depart from evil, study to do good, and walk in all His ordinances, because they have the fear of God in their heart and a sincere desire to please Him. John Wesley. They may not commit great sins; they may be trying to do right, but so long as they serve God from duty and do not know Him as their Father and the joy of their being, they are slaves, good slaves, but slaves.
George MacDonald. Type 2 obedience is that of a dutiful servant. Type 2 Christians live moral, upright lives because they want to be obedient to their Master. They don't want to do anything that displeases Him. However, their obedience is primarily motivated by submission to God, not love of God. Their obedience often flows more from their minds or from their sense of duty than it does from their hearts. Timothy Toiler. Timothy Toiler is a classic Type 2 Christian.
He has a fairly consistent spiritual walk, and most others in his church view him as a very committed Christian. And in many senses, Timothy is. He doesn't pick and choose which commandments of Christ to keep, for he knows that none of them are optional. Furthermore, fear of hell is not what motivates him, but a genuine desire to obey Christ as his Lord. So what more could Jesus want? To be sure, Christ accepts Timothy's obedience and is pleased with him.
However, Timothy is still largely a stranger to the kingdom life. He shoulders most of the responsibilities of being a Christian, but he misses out on most of Christianity's joys. Timothy certainly doesn't find Christ's yoke to be easy, nor his burden to be light. What's missing? What's missing is any love for God's commandments. Timothy's primary motivation is the desire that a faithful, obedient servant has to please his Master.
However, Christ calls us to a much deeper and more satisfying relationship than merely being his servant. Not only does Timothy not love Christ's commands, he doesn't particularly like most of them. In fact, he would be glad if Christ abolished them. However, since Christ has not canceled them, Timothy will dutifully obey Christ's commands. What if the Bible wasn't true? One day, Timothy Toiler was talking with Bill, one of his Christian friends, about different "what if" situations.
In the course of the conversation, Bill asked Timothy, "What if it turned out the Bible wasn't true? Do you think you'd still live the godly life you live now?" Timothy thought for a moment and then replied, "For the most part, yes. However, I have to admit that there are a lot of things I do only because the Bible commands them." "Such as?" Bill asked. "Well, I certainly wouldn't turn the other cheek if Jesus hadn't commanded it.
I've been cheated in business dealings a number of times, how I would relish taking those people to court." "Anything else?" Timothy reflected for a moment. "When I'm in the break room at work, I hate the fact that I'm usually out of touch with the conversations around me. The other employees talk about the latest movie or rock star or something like that.
I usually have no idea what they're talking about, or they're telling some risqué story or off-color joke, and I have to move to an empty corner to get away from it. I feel like I'm missing out on so much fun. Others are doing so many exciting things that I can't do because I'm a Christian." "I know exactly what you mean," Bill concurred, nodding. "Yes, Timothy would rather live by the world's standards, if only God permitted it. However, he's a dutiful servant, and so he lives by God's commandments.
He doesn't go to the latest movies, but he wishes he could. He doesn't join in the office football pool, but he wishes he could. He doesn't cheat on his taxes, but he wishes he could. Timothy believes that he loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength because he obeys God's commandments." "I don't particularly love God's commandments," he will admit, "but I do love God." And perhaps Timothy does love God with all of his mind, but he doesn't love God with all of his heart and soul. Let me explain.
What's missing in Timothy's life? Timothy Toiler is a born-again Christian, and I believe that Christ accepts Timothy's type of obedience. In fact, no doubt Timothy receives many blessings from Christ in his life. Like Type 1 fear obedience, Type 2 dutiful servant obedience may be where many Christians start, or perhaps it represents the next step in their spiritual growth. It certainly is better than fear obedience. However, it's not where Christ wants us to dwell.
I think if we're honest, almost all of us will have to admit that some of our obedience is dutiful servant compliance. Very few, if any, of us ever reach true love obedience in every facet of our lives. Even Paul acknowledged, "I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:27.
So if Paul had to discipline himself and make his body his slave, none of us should imagine that we're going to reach a state of complete surrender to Christ without having to discipline ourselves as well. However, we should not have to buffet our bodies in order to obey most of Christ's commands.
Christians like Timothy Toiler make the sacrifice of denying themselves for Christ, but they receive only part of the joy and refreshment that comes from love obedience, where Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light. Sometimes Type 2 obedience produces a cold and spiritless Christianity. Timothy Toiler makes me think of someone in the olden days in an arranged marriage where neither spouse really loved the other.
They dutifully carried out the responsibilities of married life, and they were faithful to each other. Yet they didn't enjoy a vibrant, joyful marriage where warmth and love abounded. The danger of burnout. What most Christians find is that it's difficult to remain at Type 2 obedience throughout their entire lives. They need to move on to the kingdom life with its love obedience. Here they will experience the joys that Christ has promised, and his easy yoke will become a reality for them.
However, most Type 2 Christians don't turn to the kingdom life. Instead, often they burn out at some point. The pews of thousands of churches and the sofas of thousands of homes are littered with the spiritual corpses of burned-out Type 2 Christians. What happens when Type 2 Christians burn out? Some give up on Christianity altogether. Others turn into Type 1 Christians, obeying only those commandments that they perceive as being salvation issues. Others turn into Pharisaic Christians.
They follow the letter of the law and then attempt to lighten their burden by looking down on all other Christians they perceive as being less spiritual. They receive carnal, unholy pleasure by feeling superior to others. They may even imagine that they are now living the kingdom life. However, those truly living the kingdom life aren't fault-finders, and they don't look down on others. Still, other burned-out Type 2 Christians discover grace.
They tell themselves that they've been in legal bondage for years, and so they decide that the popular Christianity of easy believism is right after all. Now they only obey those commands they find easy. They imagine at long last they have found freedom in Christ. The yoke upon them is now easy, and the burden is light, but only because they ignore any commandments that are burdensome to them. Yes, dutiful servant obedience is a difficult place to dwell.
That's why it's important to move forward into love obedience.