When you hear the word “duty” what do you think of? A soldier? A parent? Someone doing something they don’t really want to do?

I recently purchased an anthology of English romantic poetry and read a poem by William Wordsworth called “Ode to Duty”. The intriguing title immediately attracted my attention. You can read the whole poem here, and I recommend you do so. But a couple lines stood out to me that discussed the relation of duty to desire. I think they are significant enough to discuss and reflect on here.

Me this uncharted freedom tires;

I feel the weight of chance-desires:

My hopes no more must change their name

I long for a repose that ever is the same

“Ode to Duty” William Wordsworth

What the quote means

Contrasting duty and desire

In these lines, Wordsworth is presenting a contrast between desire and duty. He uses profoundly vivid images to do this. He calls his own changing desires “uncharted freedom” and “chance desires.” He describes his own hopes as something almost chaotic and untamed. They change. There is a wildness to their freedom.

And these changing desires are not insignificant: Wordsworth says he feels the weight of them. Weight has a connotation of something burdensome. Think if you are carrying a heavy backpack: it’s weight drags you down and burdens you. Depending on how “weighty” something is, you might use up a lot of your energy to carry it. Wordsworth uses this imagery to describe your desires.

Then, Wordsworth presents duty. Unlike personal desires, duty is described as something constant and unchanging. Personal desires are chaotic and liquid, but duty is ordered and solid. And this unchanging nature of duty brings “repose” or rest. This is in contrast with the weight and burden of changing desires. Wordsworth’s point is simple:

Your personal hopes and dreams are always changing and burden you by their shifting goals. Duty, on the other hand, is constant and gives the peaceful rest of knowing what is required of you.

Why it is important

Duty sets in order our shifting personal desires

I think one reason “Ode to Duty” stuck out to me is how accurately it paints our modern culture. You and I live in a world that elevates personal desire above everything. And it is exhausting. The wisdom of the age says being true to yourself and following your dreams brings freedom. But how often the opposite is true! If you live solely for your own desires, Wordsworth says, you are in bondage to something chaotic and always changing.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How often have your own personal goals or plans changed?
• When was the last time you fulfilled some dream or goal of yours? How happy did it really make you?
• Have you ever received something you really wanted, but after receiving it, realized it wasn’t what you thought it was?

The point here is you often do not really know what you want. You think you do, but you can want the wrong things. Or end up meeting a goal that ends up disappointing you. Or, to Wordsworth’s point, you might wake up today with a completely new set of ideas and goals than you did yesterday.

If you live based on your own changing feelings, dreams, and desires, you are setting yourself up for a chaotic life.

So how does duty help? Duty gives you a set of responsibilities and expectations apart from your own dreams and desires. Put another way, desire is internal and duty is external. Your desires shift almost daily and change as you change, but duty gives you expectations that are long-lasting.

I interpret what Wordsworth says in these lines as duty frees you from subjecting yourself to constantly changing desires. It brings a rest of knowing what is expected of you and knowing that those expectations don’t change easily. I don’t think Wordsworth’s point is to never have desires. That would remove an important part of what it means to be human. But personal desires and goals must be submitted to an external, rigid standard it you are to have a good life.

Duty and the Christian

Now, all that was merely reflections from a work of art. But I think it accurately pictures the tension you see in Scripture between duty and desire. Now, the word “duty” I have found can get a bad rap in Christian circles. A common response to duty is “well, God wants you to serve Him with your heart. God loves a cheerful giver. It is not enough just to obey God, you must want to obey God out of love for Christ.”

And I 100% agree. But I think “duty” means more than just “doing something you don’t want to do.” I would define duty as “external responsibility.” Something outside of yourself that has a claim on how you live your life. Now, you can “do your duty” either joyfully or begrudgingly. Christians should be in the joyful group. But I don’t think it is debatable that the Bible gives a standard of duty that promises a joyful life. It is a set of responsibilities that starts with Jesus and the gospel and permeates to every aspect of a Christian’s life.

God in His word has given us a set of responsibilities to set in order our often chaotic, selfish lives.

“Duty” is not a depressing word for the Christian. Like Wordsworth describes, God’s commands, imperatives, and responsibilities lead to a more restful life than living for self and your own desires. Why? God’s word does not change like your desires and dreams. You can know what God expects of you. You can’t know how you or your own goals will change. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Takeaways

1. Continually read Scripture so you know what God requires of your life

If you claim to be a Christian, you are claiming to have an objective, unchanging standard of truth to base your life on: the Bible. So read it. Study it. You cannot live according to God’s standard if you don’t know God’s standard. See what the Bible has to say about your marriage. Meditate on the implications the Bible has on how you work. What place should local Church life have in your week?

Ask yourself “Do I think about my own goals and dreams more than I think about God’s word?” As Christians, you and I need to be preoccupied with pleasing God through obedience to His word. Not to earn His favor. You have that in Christ. But if you are a new creation in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit to empower you to actually bear fruit and live a life pleasing to God. So get to know your duty. Study Scripture to know what God requires of you in every facet of your life.

2. Stop living your life based on your constantly changing dreams

This is a tough one in modern culture. To live for something or someone other than yourself is a radical idea. Living according to a standard outside of yourself is an even more radical idea. Conforming personal desires to an unchanging standard when those desires clash with that standard is about as radical as you can get these days. But ask yourself: Is following your dreams and pursuing your goals bringing you peace and happiness? Or is it exhausting you?

Wordsworth says in “Ode to Duty”, it is the latter. In my own personal experience,the more I focus on my own dreams, the more I lose my happiness. Why? Because most of my ambitions are either sinful, selfish, or transient. Perhaps you want money. Fame. Success. Living for these goals is not going to give you the happiness you desire. But if you submit your life to the word of God, happiness is not just hoped for. It is promised:

How happy is the man
who does not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path of sinners
or join a group of mockers!
Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

Psalm 1:1-3, HCSB emphasis added

Don’t listen to the lies of the world. Living for your own desires will destroy you. Subjecting yourself to the duty of “glorifying God and enjoying Him forever” is the only path to lasting happiness.

3. Joyfully live out the duties God requires of you

It is not enough just to know your responsibilities or avoid living for your own desires. You must actually live in obedience to have the rest Scripture promises. Again, this is not an obedience which tries to earn God’s favor. This is not subjecting yourself to the rigid laws and regulations that Christ has abolished. But it does mean taking the commands of Scripture seriously.

The gospel does not remove duty. It gives you the power and motivation to actually fulfill what God requires of you.

One of my favorite verses is 2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness…” Everything. You don’t need your own desires fulfilled in order to live a good, happy life. You need to run to Christ to receive the power you need to live in obedience to Scripture.

Wordsworth in “Ode to Duty” sees a profound rest and freedom in living for duty rather than living for your changing desires. Christians have something better than mere duty, man-made rules, or culturally constructed standards. Christians have the unchanging standard of the living God, the creator of the universe. And this God has granted them, in Christ, the forgiveness and power needed to live in accordance to that standard. Don’t despise the word “duty”. It is a beautiful word for the Christian.

This post is part of an ongoing series called “Book Quote of the Week.” Click here if you missed the previous posts in the series. Subscribe and share below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram so you don’t miss any content.