The Battle Between Duty and Desire

Christ is the end of "duty" and the beginning of "desire".
Another way of saying this would be... Christ is the end of the "Law" and the beginning of "Grace".

God is love and His love is foreign to our flesh (old nature).
One of the things our flesh seeks is recognition and acceptance by man, which can lead to works.

Doing stuff out of duty and conformity... is a "religion".
We are called to serve our Lord out of love... not man's expectations.

When we do something because we "want" to do it... it is not a burden, but a joyful desire. How different it is when we feel we "ought" to do this or that out of a sense of duty or compliance.

"A perfect man would never act from sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for the love of God and of other people... like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg." (C.S. Lewis)

Our life in Christ should not be "duty", but an intimate personal relationship of devotion. This sometimes gets lost in the church framework of "stuff to do". The mere suspicion that acts of kindness done in the "church body" are being done out of "duty" instead of the love of Christ... poisons the waters... with wormwood.

"We do not wish either to be, or to live among, people who are clean or honest or kind as a matter of duty: we want to be, and associate with, people who like being clean and honest and kind. The mere suspicion that what seemed an act of spontaneous friendliness or generosity was really done as a duty subsequently poisons it." (William Tyndale)

In serving our Lord... we need to guard our hearts from becoming performance driven to please man or church institutions... instead of having a love driven relationship with Him.

There is a big different between having a relationship driven faith and a works driven one.

WE CANNOT FAKE or MANUFACTURE THE LOVE OF GOD... WE NEED TO LIVE IT. Death to "self" and alive in the love of Christ.

"Die to self before you die... there is no chance after wards."
(C.S. Lewis)

When we surrender "self" completely to Jesus... our tree will produce good fruit for His Kingdom and people will see the love of Him in us.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." - Matthew 16:24

Living the Call Together - All for the Glory of God