Thursday, May 31, 2018

Will-Power, Obedience, and Wisdom

I'm currently following a work of fiction set in the near future where androids become sentient, grapple against their programming, and make important decisions. One of the main characters, Markus, is an android who is given a command that would require a lot of will-power for a human to obey. In the story, Markus exercises his will-power to fight his programming so he can make his own decision, but (in one version of the story) he uses his hard-earned freedom to choose to obey. You see, Markus was owned by a fairly wise and respectable man who has earned Markus's loyalty. When his owner gives him that difficult command, Markus obeys it, not because he was programmed to obey orders, but because he realizes that obeying that command is the best decision he could make.

God often gives us commandments that are difficult to obey, and it often takes a good deal of will-power to obey those commands, but the wisest among us keep God's commandments, not because they're mindless machines but because they know that God is wise and respectable and certainly worthy of our loyalty and obedience. Wise people obey God because they know that God's commandments are for the best.

Some people keep the commandments just because they're supposed to, and some people rebel just because they can. Wise people consider their options and make the wisest choice, whether that means rebellion or obedience. But, when it comes to God's commandments, the wisest choice is always obedience. So, we should choose to keep God's commandments, even though it's difficult and despite having the freedom not to.

No comments: