Two Kinds of Obedience

Based on a teaching by Michael Sattler in the 16th century:

There are two kinds of obedience: that of the slave and that of the child.

The child focuses on obeying the continuing, inner witness of the Holy Spirit. The slave focuses on, and limits himself to, the command of his Lord that he is able to accomplish without the Father’s grace.

The child relies on the Power the Father gave him to obey. But because the slave is not filled by the Holy Spirit, he does not have the power to obey the Father.

The child listens only to the Father to determine what obedience really is.
Because he does not have the power to obey, the slave changes what obedience is to be what he is able to do.

The child’s obedience, because it is based on his love of the Father, is focused on loving his neighbor, simply because it is the desire of his Father. The slave’s obedience ignores the heart of the will of the Father—namely that of loving his neighbor. Should the slave determine to do good to his neighbor, it is not because he delights to do the will of the Father, but because it will gain him some benefit, or because he feels it is his obligation. The child’s obedience is the child’s satisfaction and joy.

The obedience of the slave is incomplete in that which is most important, and so his Lord and Master takes no pleasure in him.
However, the Father cannot reject the obedience of the child, for he strives after the Father and becomes complete.

The child’s obedience springs forth from the love of the Father, even if no other reward should follow. The slave’s obedience is sourced in one’s love of self, the hope of reward and the fear of punishment.

The child wishes to gain only that which his Father will give him, knowing that all good gifts come from the Father. The slave desires the benefits that others receive, whether the Father wishes to give that to him or not.

The loving child seeks out the will of the Father from the Father himself, his word and his Spirit. The slave seeks to know the will of the Father from his fellow slaves and so his knowledge is incomplete.

The loving child rejoices in the Father’s discipline, even if he has done no sin. The slave never wants the Master’s rebuke, even if he does nothing right.

The child has his sense of worth and greatness in the Father, doing as he asks for His sake. The slave looks to his work to obtain recompense for the incomplete obedience done.

The slave’s obedience is like that under Moses, and so it produces legalists. It is a beginning and preparation for blessings. It is temporal, and does not give the blessing of God.
The obedience of the child is like Christ’s and so it makes children of God. It is the blessing complete—the wholeness God has wished for humankind. It is eternal, although it is begun in this age.
The slave’s obedience is a shadow of the true, which is realized in the loving child’s obedience.

If a man is to escape the bondage of sin, he must first hate it. In order to hate it, he must know it for what it is. The obedience of the slave hates the wickedness of the sin that the slave thinks is most important. The more one clings to one’s own partial obedience as a treasure in and of itself, the more one’s hatred of God and neighbor grows. The more one desires the blessing of this age, the more one despises the Creator who strives with one for the next age. So while the obedience of the slave is good in and of itself, it ends up creating disobedience in the heart of the slave.
However, the obedience of the Son is given by God to set one free from the bondage of slave obedience. It opens the way to love God and one’s neighbor.
In this way, the one kind of obedience leads to death, while the other leads to life.

The obedience of the slave is like the Law, was initiated in order to reveal sin. While it has a semblance of righteousness, it does not have true understanding. It is a grudging slavery, a drudgery, a life of regret and obligation. While some of the works of sin are done away with, the life of righteousness can never be gained in this manner.

The obedience of the child is given by God to do away with sin. For the one who loves with his whole heart and sacrifices himself for that love, sin is not found in him. And the one who has sin done away with in his heart, such a one willingly does whatever his Deliverer and Savior desires of him. The faithful child goes to his Father and asks, “What would you have me do now? Please grant me service for you, for I long to do your will.” Should the Father have nothing for him to do, he begs until the Father gives him some little task for him to perform.

The obedience of the slave looks for swift vengeance. The child’s obedience looks to the Father to avenge, trying to be at peace with all.

Under the slave, the one who kills is punished, while all others who hate are free. For the children, the Father punishes the one who is wrathful to his brother.

For the slave, hatred and harm against one’s enemy is permitted. For the children, they are to love those who hate them, blessing those who curse them, praying for those who wish ill to them.

The slave focuses on the disciplines he can do and makes rules for all slaves about them—reading the Bible, praying and giving. The child does all these things for the glory of the Father, looking only for his approval.

The slave may divorce his spouse because he is no longer able to live with her. The child never initiates a breaking of a covenant he has made.

The child does not fear men or love the things of men. Rather, his loyalty is to the Father alone. The child asks the Father and receives from him; the child seeks the Father and finds him; the child knocks at the Father’s door and the door is opened to him. The child enters the Father’s kingdom only through the narrow way provided for by the Father. The child avoids the false teachers who did not come from the Father. The child does what is good because the Father has made him good. The child hears what he should do from the Father, and does it.

The slave is busy with ceremonies and the traditions of men. The child is so busy with the love of God and of neighbor that he has little time for anything else. At times the child will go through the ceremonies for the sake of the slaves in order to bring them to sonship.

Slave’s obedience makes self-willed and vengeful people. The child’s obedience makes one tolerant and mild.

The slave is weary, wanting quickly to come to the end of the day’s work. The child is content and takes no account of the length of time.

The slave is angry, he wishes good to no one but himself. The child is so blessed in his obedience that he wishes everyone could be as he is.

The child does not despise the slave, although some might think so. But the child’s obedience is the fulfillment of the slave’s. The child’s obedience is the completion of the life of the slave. Therefore, whoever is a slave, let him seek a better obedience—that of the child’s, who does not need the slave’s obedience at all.

The child, in his joyful obedience, gains the hatred of the slave, who wishes all to be like himself. The slave hates the child for his love of those who disobey the slave, but love the Father. The slave hates the child for his easy obedience. The slave hates the child for his disinterest in the details of men’s traditions. The slave hates the child for his unending confidence in the Father, even in light of tragedy. The slave wants nothing to do with the child, but if the child is in his way, then the slave will persecute the child.

The slave claims the child has been disobedient. The slave claims the child is presumptuous. The slave claims the child is proud and self-willed. Then the slave will attempt to punish the child in the name of the Father. The Father will look at the child with love and punish the slave, casting him out of the kingdom. And in this way, the child of humility will overcome the false obedience.

The way of the child is the way of Christ. All this comes to those who have faith in the way of Christ, in the way of the cross. All this comes to those who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of love who opposes the service for the self. Everyone who follows the love of the Father is in Christ and receives the blessings of Christ: the adoption as sons, the approval of the Father, the resurrection from the dead, the reward of the kingdom and life everlasting.