Here's Augustine on the subject. He's describing the legalistic obedience of some of the Israelites under the old covenant.
"...[they] received the law. They did not observe what is in the decalogue. And any who did comply did so out of fear of punishment, not out of love of justice. They were carrying the harp, but they weren't singing. If you are singing, it's enjoyable; if you are fearing, it's burdensome. That's why the old man either doesn't do it [obey] or does it out of fear, not out of love of holiness, not out of delight in chastity, not out of the calmness of charity, but out of fear. It's because he is the old man, and the old man can sing the old song but not the new one. In order to sing the new song he must become the new man.... If you do it [obey] out of love, you are singing the new song. If you do it out of fear but do it all the same you are indeed carrying the harp but you are not yet singing.... Anyone who is still singing the old song has not yet come to an agreement with his adversary [God and his Word]. He is afraid of God coming and condemning him. Chastity has no delights for him yet, justice has no delights for him yet, but it is because he is in dread of God's judgment that he abstains from such deeds. He does not condemn that actual lust that is seething inside him. He does not yet take delight in what is good. He does not yet find there the pleasant inspiration to sing the new song, but out of his old habits he is still fearing punishments. (From "Sermon 9" in Essential Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill, 32-33).
What struck me in this passage is its similarity to the argumentation in the Reformed tradition used by those who assert that love for God is the only proper motivation for obedience. Even the use of the image of singing a new song to represent obedience out of love for God is used by Jack Miller in some of his "sonship" teaching. And the argument that obedience out of fear is actually a form of disobedience (because the person does not yet delight in the law nor hate his sin) is common too.
2 comments:
Hey Jeremy,
That's a great Augustine quote. With respect to the "debate," I've often wondered if we tend to miss a whole lot of "with-respect-to-what-ness" here. (pace Jack Collins)
I guess what I mean is that on the one hand we can pit love and fear against each other (e.g. "perfect love casts out fear"), yet there also seems to be times when "fear" (of a sort) is complementary to the relationship.
For example, I've noticed that often in these "debates," one group emphasizing love will tend to gravitate towards biblical terms that are more familial in nature (e.g. Father/son), while another group emphasizing fear will tend to draw upon biblical terms emphasizing lordship. It's at times like this where I want to get all perspectival about all this.
I also wonder if we have a tendency to be too reductionistic about "motivation." Motives are the sort of thing that seems rather simple a first blush, but get amazingly complex quite quickly.
Anyway, those are just some impressions that I thought I would toss out there. Good stuff to chew on.
I wish you blogged more often. Perhaps if you quit your day job, then you could do this full time. :-)
Was it Edmund Clowney that talked about a love that is compatible with fear? Is fear of the Lord able to be separated from what he has done for us out of love?
By the way, I appreciate your work with the conference.
Claudia Wootton
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