Pilgrim Soldier

Within The Salvation Army there is a word that has, for my generation at least, become an unacceptable part of the vocabulary. It’s as if this simple 4 letter word has become, in English slang, a ‘four-letter word’ and to even whisper it in polite company will earn you frowns of disappointment.

The word is ‘duty’!

Why this word has become such an anathema to many Salvationists is a combination of the age we now live in and its poor use within Army circles. For any of us who grew up in the Army of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, duty was used almost solely in respect of our brass band and songsters. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve heard the phrase “The band [or songsters] is on duty!” Almost without fail it meant that you would be seriously looked down upon if you weren’t at the particular event that the ‘duty section’ was in! It didn’t matter whether you had arranged something else, even months in advance, because there would always be someone who would find fault at you not being there, after all it was your duty!

This is not to say that this use of the word is particularly bad. If you commit yourself to be involved in a band or choir, of course you should be prepared to make your programme fit around its programme. However, the problem is that little, if anything, was ever mentioned about our duty to follow Jesus and be obedient to him.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the song ‘Pathway of Duty’ has become so unpopular. Perhaps the words serve as a reminder to us of being on ‘duty’ at concerts that held little or no interest to us, and which never really seemed to bring anyone into the Kingdom.

We live today in a world that concentrates on the rights of the individual and a reluctant, tacit acceptance that many people have given up on being responsible members of society. Duty is unpopular as it suggests a reigning in of freedom and forces us to conform to certain societal ideals.

Yet duty is important, and we do have a duty in our walk with Jesus. At the root of our faith is a duty to be obedient. Without obedience our faith cannot grow. Bill Hull, in his book Choose the Life, has written that:

Many people have studied the Bible and considered following Jesus, but until we actually step out in obedience to him, we can’t experience the transformation of our character.

Many of us in the church are obedient to the rules of reading our Bible and praying every day, yet when it comes to being obedient to the Holy Spirit in our lives we ignore him. We choose the path of religiosity in our faith rather than being followers of our Rabbi who is also the Son of God.

Our duty as Christians is to put aside everything of ourselves, surrender our self-control, and to become disciples whose every step is a step of obedience. By embracing this duty of obedience to him, we will in the words of that old, often despised song discover that “while we walk this path of duty we will find our needs supplied from the river of God’s mercy that is flowing close beside.”