Obligation

Many times when we hear the word obligation it conjures up images in our mind of the legal requirement involved in the repayment of a debt. When you purchase a new car and sign the loan document from the financing company, you are obligated to make those monthly installments faithfully. If you fail to fulfill your obligation they will come and repossess your vehicle. So we comply with the financial liability, and usually an additional interest rate that makes the car even more expensive, all under the threat of ruin and loss if we fail to remain current in our payments. The result is that most people associate the idea of obligation with some sort of coercion, whether direct or implied.

“I’m obliged” is an old-fashioned saying you used to hear, usually spoken in response to a favor being done for someone. It meant that you were indebted to your benefactor and recognized the expectation of returning the favor at a future date. Unfortunately, many people don’t really know how to respond in that situation. Either we insult a kindness by insisting to “pay for it”, or we take advantage of a charitable act and begin to expect it on a consistent basis.

The reason we struggle with the concept of obligation is because we misunderstand the motivation of both the action that brings us under it and the natural response that should come from us. Living under that duty, as the world sees it, brings us under bondage, but that’s not the case with God. In God’s Kingdom obligation is one of the responses that follows freedom and is intended to enrich our lives! That is because the motivation and response of obligation are firmly rooted in love!

What Jesus did for all of us on the cross of Calvary is the ultimate expression of how much God truly loves us. Our response of obligation should flow from that same kind of love and not be polluted by the self-centered distortions of the world that bring bondage. The obligation of love is freedom!

How exciting to be His people,
Pastor David Vanderpool