Editorial June 21, 1924 Issue

Right Obedience

Ella W. Hoag

There is perhaps nothing which concerns all mankind more deeply than the question of right obedience. Strange as it may seem to the thoughtless, all men are always obeying something or some one. No act is ever performed, no word is ever spoken, no thought is ever formulated, but in obedience to some demand of some sort. Even what is called disobedience may be said to be obedience to wrong instead of to right. Paul stated this plainly when he said, "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."

Now the very first law of God to man is the supremely beneficent law of obedience to Him, for within this law God includes all that is good and beautiful and desirable for His creation. From obedience to such a law springs all right action, and consequently thereby men may realize all that is perfect and harmonious. This obedience must be that which is "unto righteousness," of which Paul speaks; while disobedience to God, or obedience to the so-called supposititious opposite to God, namely, self-will, self-opinion, selfish intent or purpose of whatever name, must be the obedience to sin which brings destruction.

Although for centuries those who have believed in God have generally sought to obey Him, and even though they have also believed that Paul spoke truly when he stated that disobedience to God would result in disaster, they have still stumbled blindly along, because they have understood neither the absolutely satisfactory nature of divine good nor the totally unsatisfactory nature of evil sufficiently always to cling to the one and refuse the other.

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