Obedience is not a Virtue

Don't live a "Good German" life

7-29-22

How does society get itself out of tyranny and to a free and peaceful existence? It keeps coming back to the simple notion of non-compliance. Do not comply AND do not force others to comply with tyranny.

Overcoming Tyranny

Maybe this answer is so simple that people don't believe it can work and thus refuse to comply with noncomplying. Or maybe noncompliance is too difficult for most people who are raised with the notion that obedience to authority is a virtue.

What do you want me to do!

Is it?

The answer to that question is no. Obedience is not a theological virtue. Here is a good article discussing obedience and a synopsis of when authorities must be obeyed:

• Lack of love for lawgiver: Disobedience

• Proper love of lawgiver: Obedience

• Too much love of lawgiver: Idolatry

First, all human beings through intellect and free will can achieve the four Cardinal Virtues of:

1. Prudence - power of reason to see what is good and what is evil to make moral choices

2. Justice - respect for others' rights and the common good

3. Fortitude - courage to stand up for what is good and right

4. Temperance - practice moderation in pleasures and goods

Second, when human beings accept God, they are bestowed with the three additional Theological Virtues of:

1. Faith - commitment to God, to do good works and to be a witness to

   Christianity

2. Hope - desire for eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven

3. Charity - experience love for God and love for others

Nowhere on those two lists above is "obedience" enumerated. So why do people think obedience is a virtue? Maybe because obedience is an easy way to live with many rewards. It doesn't require us to practice the other seven virtues at all. We let other people do our thinking for us with an expectation that we will be rewarded for such compliance.

Obey peasants!

But aha, I gotcha Napoleon, Jesus said to obey the law and he always said he was obedient to God. Why doesn't that make obedience a virtue?

Because obedience, defined as the "compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority" is not a stand-alone cardinal or theological virtue. It results from the seven virtues listed above. We cannot, and should not practice obedience with laws, orders or authorities that violate the seven basic virtues listed above.

Saying it another way - we should not not use the "Good German" defense in our lives. We should not go through life unthinking, or burying our heads in the sand to the atrocities and evil going on around us just to "go along to get along." Just being obedient to someone in authority with no thought as to why that person is in authority or whether what that person is ordering us to do is moral and good is EASY, a very easy way to live. Our lives are in authority's control. We can always pass the buck back to authority or make excuses of why we did something when it all goes wrong. We NEVER have to think about our decisions and why we make them. We basically live our lives with no virtues.

However, what happens when we do the opposite? What happens when each day we have to consciously live by the seven virtues? We have to consciously look at laws, persons and things in authority and decide to obey depending on if those laws, persons and things in authority are living up to the seven virtues. Life gets HARD, very hard. Our lives are now in our control. The buck stops with us, and we have no excuses for when things go wrong. We ALWAYS have to think about our decisions and why we make them. We are living with virtues, and living with virtues is not what the prince of this world wants us to do.

Are we the goodies?

The prince of this world (satan) wants us to obey his authority, unthinkingly, and with no virtues. Thus, all atrocities and evil in this world result from people living the "Good German" defense in their lives.

"I just did what they told me."

"I just went along."

"I don't really care."

"I'm not as smart as XXXX."

"I had to keep my job."

"If it wasn't them, it would have been me."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I had to go along to get along."

"I wanted to travel or go to a broadway show."

"They told me I would kill Grandma."

"They told me it worked."

"They told me to do it!"

"I don't know why I did it."

And onward, and onward. By living “Good German” lives, and placing obedience as a virtue in of itself, we are living lives of excuses. It is never our fault, it's always someone else's fault. We have no control over what we do. We are powerless.

Sorry. We can't live that way and NOT expect tyranny to continue.

But I did what they told me!

So if obedience is not a virtue, what is it? Obedience is doing the Will of God, as Jesus did when he walked this earth to his death. When we do the Will of God, we practice the seven virtues. When we practice the seven virtues, the “Good German” defense in our lives is not needed. We can discern when earthly edicts, laws and authorities should be obeyed and when they should be disobeyed. Additionally, we can live with the consequences of obeying and disobeying, knowing the Will of God is being followed.

Jesus said it quite clearly † "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." † (Mark 12:17) He did not say, "Repay to Caesar everything he tells you to do."

God wants us to think, discern, and use our free will in our lives and not be robots for authority. Obedience has its place when authority is doing the Will of God. When it is not, disobedience is required, from all of us, every single time, no matter the consequences.