A Royal Wedding gives us all a magical taste of something far removed from our daily lives, or is it.
Ephesians 2:19 states that we are members of God’s household and there is nothing more Royal than that.
We would I suggest be wise to learn as much as we can from the parallels between our heavenly King and earthly Royalty. One place to learn in particular is the understanding of ‘duty’.
Our new Princess has stepped into a place of duty.
I see many articles saying the things which our new Princess cannot do, some suggesting she will change those things in some way. I am sure that she will have a great influence but the focus on changing things or comments on having to conform miss the point for me.
Perhaps there are two sources of duty, one born out of law and contract and one birthed out of love.
When duty is the result of love, the requirements are related to stepping into history and protecting relationships and purpose, fuelled by love. Whereas when duty is the result of the law, the requirements are merely to obey the contract and avoid punishment, fuelled often by fear.
So often our christian lives mirror this and we read more about what we cannot do than what we can. Some want to change long established truths, to dismantle the church and avoid a life of serving. Perhaps like our new Princess we should look at what we do get to enjoy, the access and privilege that we have, the place in history which we take and the protection of the great purpose of the King and His Kingdom.
For our duty is born out of love.
Our King Jesus embraced duty born out of love, he took his place in history and he protected the purpose of His father. Yes he changed things, but he did that to come into line with his father’s business.
Duty will cost you. There will be a price for maintaining a place of influence. I think particularly of two GREAT men who lead imperfect christian organisations, the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Their sense of duty keeps them in a place of influence, affecting history and maintaining the purpose of these two great organisations. They could take one issue that they disagree with I am sure and out of that lose their wider influence, step away from their place in history and damage the purpose of heaven for the organisation which they serve.
We need to get our sense of duty back.
After all we are members of God’s Royal Household!
