Article June 17, 1922 Issue

Obedience

CLIFFORD A. WOODARD

He who would learn what obedience is, must first learn the nature of authority; for obedience is defined by the dictionary as "compliance with that which is required by authority." It is evident that there can be only one real authority. For, if there were two or more authorities, with identical or concurring requirements, these authorities would coincide and be one and the same. On the other hand, if there were two or more authorities, with conflicting or inconsistent requirements, either these so-called authorities would be equally powerful, and each would neutralize the other and nullify its requirements, resulting in a complete lack of any authority, or else that authority with power to enforce its requirements would prevail over and utterly destroy the other so-called authority, thus establishing its own supremacy and power. The existence of more than one supreme authority is, therefore, impossible. Said the psalmist, "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God." Evil is not an authority; it has no power and can impose no requirements. The only authority is God; and His requirements are enforced by all the power of omnipotence. Obedience, then, means compliance with the requirements of God, omnipotent good.

Now, God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. He is "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." God being unchanging, His requirements are always the same; therefore, we can apply to those requirements the name of law, for law means "that which is laid, set, or fixed." God being the only authority, He is the only lawmaker. And His law is constant in its operation and effect; it is continuous, unceasing, unbroken. Obedience is compliance with this unchanging law,—the law of good.

Man, made in the image and likeness of God, "reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker," as Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"(p. 475). He expresses every quality of God, and conforms to all His requirements; that is, he complies with God's law. He is obedient to God, not because of any personal volition, or because of chance, but because of law. Obedience and law are correlative terms. They refer to the unchanging relation between God and man. That relation is expressed through law in obedience, as we consider it from the standpoint of the Lawgiver, omnipotent Mind, and from the standpoint of the law-obeyer, Mind's expression or idea, man. Obedience is continuous and unceasing. Spiritual man not merely ought to be obedient, but is obedient, because of the very nature of his being. And, so, man lives, because life is obedience to the law of Life, God. Man loves, because "love is the fulfilling of the law." He is perfect, because God's law requires perfection. He can no more hate or die than God, who is Love and Life, can change and become different.

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