Ronin and Samurai

I recently watched a video about samurai in which it was explained that the cartoon character Samurai Jack was not actually a samurai. Instead, he was a ronin, the difference being that samurai have masters to whom they owe complete fidelity, whereas ronin are masterless. I wonder which one of them is better. Which of the two would be better for us to be? Which of them is closer to my ideal of a Paladin?

Naturally, the ronin is more tempting. Not having a master gives an individual a great deal of freedom for how they can behave. Of course, there will be consequences; every action has consequences, but at least they don't have to take orders. Ronin cannot be compelled to commit atrocities in the name of their feudal lord, as many samurai have, because they do not have any lord that they are compelled to obey. They are their own masters, free to act as they choose. And as Samurai Jack has proven, a ronin does not need a master to compel him to do good. "Samurai" (Ronin) Jack has shown on many occasions over his show's five-season run that he is more than willing to act with honor and to do good. As a ronin, he is free to do as his conscience directs, regardless of what any feudal lord says.

Yet, we have a Lord, and we're probably better off for it. While mortal lords and kings are invariably imperfect, with some being deeply flawed and arguably evil, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is absolutely perfect, as is His law. Unlike the samurai of feudal Japan, we will never have to choose between doing good and obeying our Lord because what our Lord commands is good. Doing good and obeying God are the same thing. Now, it's somewhat unclear whether good actions are good because God commands them or whether God commands us to perform those actions because those actions are inherently good, and you can argue about the chicken and the egg until the cows come home, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that we hearken unto the Lord and do good, which is basically the same thing.

We are not ronin. We are samurai. We have a Lord whom we are honor-bound to obey. Yet, this does not cause for us the same problems that the feudal lords caused for their samurai, because our Lord has never and will never command us to do evil. We will never have to choose between following our conscience and following the Lord because, if our hearts are in the right place, they will both lead to the same destination by the same path. I am thankful that our Lord is a righteous lord and that we don't need to feel any moral reluctance to obey Him. I'm thankful that we can trust that His commands are good. And I'm thankful that, by learning His commandments, we can get a clearer picture of what "good" is. We have a good Lord, and it is good for us to obey Him.