Duty
Duty in scripture is the obligation owed — first to God, then to the neighbor — and the verb under it is steady. The Mosaic books name what Yahweh requires, the wisdom writings put the same charge into the mouth of a father and a sage, the prophets press the charge into specific deeds, and the gospel and apostolic writings carry the same line into discipleship: a daily charge, a charge to use what has been given, a charge to bear with the weak, and a charge to keep the home in order. The unprofitable-slaves saying sets the temperature for the whole field — "we have done that which it was our duty to do" (Lu 17:10): duty is the floor of obedience, not its ceiling.
What Yahweh requires
Deuteronomy gives the duty-to-God in catalogue form. The summary command is "you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (De 6:5). The same chapter elsewhere puts the requirement as a list of verbs: "what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?" (De 10:12-13). The same combination is repeated as standing law — "Therefore you will love Yahweh your God, and keep [his Speech], and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always" (De 11:1) — and is put before Israel as a choice of life or death: "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed; to love Yahweh your God, to obey [his Speech], and to stick to him; for he is your life" (De 30:19-20).
Joshua repeats the same list to the eastern tribes — "love Yahweh your⁺ God, and walk in all his ways, and keep his commandments, and stick to him, and serve him with all your⁺ heart and with all your⁺ soul" (Jos 22:5) — and the farewell he speaks to all Israel reduces it to one line: "Take good heed therefore to your⁺ souls, that you⁺ love Yahweh your⁺ God" (Jos 23:11). The Psalter speaks the command back to the saints in the same plural address — "Oh love Yahweh, all you⁺ his saints" (Ps 31:23) — and Proverbs reframes it as a father's request: "My son, give me your heart; And let your eyes delight in my ways" (Pr 23:26).
The will of him who sent
In John, Christ states his own duty directly. "My meat is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (Joh 4:34); "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (Joh 6:38). What he says of himself he then turns on his disciples: "If you⁺ love me, you⁺ will keep my commandments" (Joh 14:15); "He who has my commandments, and keeps them, it is he who loves me" (Joh 14:21); "You⁺ are my friends, if you⁺ do the things which I command you⁺" (Joh 15:14). The pattern Christ hands over is itself constitutive of duty — "For I have given you⁺ an example, that you⁺ also should do as I have done to you⁺" (Joh 13:15) — and Jude closes the loop: "keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life" (Jude 1:21).
The unprofitable slaves
Luke places the controlling saying in the mouth of Christ himself: "Even so you⁺ also, when you⁺ will have done all the things that are commanded you⁺, say, We are unprofitable slaves; we have done that which it was our duty to do" (Lu 17:10). Done in full, duty does not place the doer above the duty. Romans gives the corresponding apostolic appeal — "I urge you⁺ therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your⁺ bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your⁺ spiritual service" (Ro 12:1) — and the chapter that follows it spreads the duty across a long line of specific obligations: unhypocritical love, brotherly affection, zeal, hope, patience, prayer, hospitality, blessing of persecutors, peace, non-retaliation, and overcoming evil with good, climaxing in "Don't be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Ro 12:21).
Daily duty
Duty in scripture is reckoned by days. The temple service is the canonical model. Asaph and his brothers were left "to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required" (1Ch 16:37); Solomon ordered the priestly courses and Levite offices "as the duty of every day required" (2Ch 8:14); the returnees under Zerubbabel "kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and [offered] the daily burnt-offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required" (Ezr 3:4); and Ezra read in the Book of the Law "day by day, from the first day to the last day" (Ne 8:18). The manna economy is the same shape — "the people will go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not" (Ex 16:4) — and the Psalter speaks it back as praise: "I will sing praise to your name forever, That I may daily perform my vows" (Ps 61:8); "I have called daily on you, O Yahweh" (Ps 88:9); "Every day I will bless you; And I will praise your name forever and ever" (Ps 145:2). Wisdom calls the same posture "Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors" (Pr 8:34).
The discipleship form Christ gives is a daily figure too: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Lu 9:23). Hebrews carries the daily form into mutual exhortation in the church — "exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you⁺ be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb 3:13).
Appropriation: lay hold on what is given
Duty is also the act of taking up what has been put within reach. Wisdom: "Take fast hold of instruction; don't let her go: Keep her; for she is your life" (Pr 4:13). The Psalter: "I will take the cup of salvation, And call on the name of Yahweh" (Ps 116:13). Isaiah's call to make peace runs in the same imperative — "let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; [yes,] let him make peace with me" (Is 27:5) — and the canon's last book closes with the same posture: "he who is thirsty, let him come: he who will, let him take the water of life freely" (Re 22:17).
The parable of the minas spells the duty out in commercial terms. "He called ten slaves of his, and gave them ten minas, and said to them, Trade⁺ until I come" (Lu 19:13). What is received is given with a charge to be used.
Cultivate the gift
The pastoral letters take the same pattern of appropriation and apply it to the gift in the Christian. Timothy is told, "exercise yourself to godliness" (1Ti 4:7), and "Don't neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the group of elders" (1Ti 4:14); the second letter renews the charge — "I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands" (2Ti 1:6). What has been given is to be put into use; idle gifts are out of order. Ben Sira speaks of the donative dimension on God's side — "he gave to men discernment, To glory in his mighty works" (Sir 38:6) — the gift comes from God and the duty is to put it to its purpose.
Formation
Duty is also formed by a pattern. The tabernacle is built "after their pattern, which has been shown to you in the mount" (Ex 25:40); the disciples are told "I have given you⁺ an example, that you⁺ also should do as I have done to you⁺" (Joh 13:15); and the believer is described as undergoing the same kind of pattern-fitting: "But all of us, with unveiled face looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (2Co 3:18). The duty in Romans 12 is set as a contrast of moldings — "don't be fashioned according to this age: but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that you⁺ may prove what the will of God is--that [which is] good and acceptable and perfect" (Ro 12:2) — and Peter writes the same thing in family terms: "as sons of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your⁺ former desires in [the time of] your⁺ ignorance: but like he who called you⁺ is holy, be⁺ yourselves also holy in all manner of living" (1Pe 1:14-15).
Donation: stewardship of what was received
Peter names duty as donation in stewardship terms — "according to as each has received a gift, serving [with] it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1Pe 4:10) — and Romans 12 spreads the same point across the body's gifts: "having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of our faith; or service, [let us give ourselves] to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, [let him do it] with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness" (Ro 12:6-8).
Duty of ministers
A specific shape of duty falls on those set apart to minister. Isaiah names the prophet's charge: "Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins" (Is 58:1); and Yahweh's appointed watchmen "will never hold their peace day nor night: you⁺ who are Yahweh's remembrancers, take⁺ no rest" (Is 62:6). Ezekiel is set to a sign-bearing duty — "you lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; [according to] the number of the days that you will lie on it, you will bear their iniquity" (Eze 4:4). The apostolic letters give the corresponding charge to the elder, the bishop, and the evangelist. Peter: "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you⁺, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to God; nor yet for greed of monetary gain, but eagerly" (1Pe 5:2). To Timothy: "If you put the brothers in mind of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith" (1Ti 4:6); "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed worker, correctly handling the word of truth" (2Ti 2:15). To Titus: "I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave you charge" (Ti 1:5). And Paul's own account of his duty as minister is "to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which since the [past] ages has been hid in God who created all things" (Ep 3:9).
Duty to the weak
The apostolic letters keep returning to a particular face of duty — bearing with the weak. Paul: "Now we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves" (Ro 15:1); "him who is weak in faith receive to yourselves, [yet] not for decision of scruples" (Ro 14:1). Liberty is held back where it would wound: "through your knowledge he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died" (1Co 8:11); "To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" (1Co 9:22). The same posture is named to Thessalonica — "admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be long-suffering toward all" (1Th 5:14) — followed immediately by "See that none render to anyone evil for evil; but always follow after that which is good, both one toward another, and toward all" (1Th 5:15).
Duty to the fellow man
The duty owed to the neighbor is named in the law and dramatized in the gospel. The Levitical command is "you will not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people; but you will love your fellow man as yourself: I am Yahweh" (Le 19:18). The lawyer's question in Luke 10 elicits the joined form of both duties: "You will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your fellow man as yourself" (Lu 10:27); when he asks "And who is my fellow man?" Christ answers with the parable of the wounded traveler. The priest and the Levite "passed by on the other side" (Lu 10:31-32); the Samaritan "was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on [them] oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him" (Lu 10:33-34). The closing instruction is verb-only: "Go, and you do likewise" (Lu 10:37).
The reciprocal version of the same duty is the rule Christ gives in Luke 6: "as you⁺ would that men should do to you⁺, do⁺ to them likewise" (Lu 6:31). Ben Sira gives the rule in nearly the same shape: "Honor your neighbor as yourself, And think over whatever may be distasteful to you" (Sir 31:14). Isaiah names what the rule looks like as material care of the poor: "Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you⁺ break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you don't hide yourself from your own flesh?" (Is 58:6-7).
The widow's two lepta
The gospel's most concrete picture of duty in giving is set in the temple treasury. "There came a poor widow, and she cast in two lepta, which make a quadrans" (Mr 12:42); Luke records the same — "he saw a certain poor widow casting in there two lepta" (Lu 21:2) — and Christ's own commentary names the standard: "Of a truth I say to you⁺, This poor widow cast in more than all of them: for all these of their superfluity cast in to the gifts; but she of her want cast in all the living that she had" (Lu 21:3-4). Duty is measured against capacity, not against the heap.
Home duties
Duty falls on the household with its own shape. The healed Gerasene is sent home as his commission — "Go to your house to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and [how] he had mercy on you" (Mr 5:19) — and Paul prescribes piety toward family as itself a duty in church order: "if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family, and to repay their parents: for this is acceptable in the sight of God" (1Ti 5:4).
Ben Sira gives the head-of-household his charge in a long sequence. The patrimony is to be held in his own hand while he lives: "To son or wife, to brother or friend, Do not give power over you while you live; And do not give your goods to another, Lest you repent, and ask for them [back]" (Sir 33:19); "While you yet live, and breath is in you, Do not give yourself to any. For it is better that your children ask of you, Than you should look to the hand of your sons" (Sir 33:20-21); "In all your works keep the upper hand, Let no stain come upon your honor" (Sir 33:22). The same chapter gives the master's duty toward the slave in plain terms: "Fodder, and a stick, and burdens, for a donkey; Bread, and discipline, and work, for a servant. Set your servant to work, and he will seek rest, Leave his hands idle, and he will seek liberty" (Sir 33:24-25); "Put him to work that he may not be idle; For idleness teaches much mischief. Set him to [such] works as are suited to him, And if he does not obey make his fetters heavy" (Sir 33:27-28). And the father's care of children and dependents is named as constant labor: "of frequent correction of children, And of smiting an evil servant" (Sir 42:5); "For an evil wife, a seal, And where many hands are, a key" (Sir 42:6); "A daughter is to a father a deceptive treasure, And the care of her puts away sleep; In her youth lest she commit adultery, And when she is married, lest she be hated" (Sir 42:9); "Keep a strict watch over your daughter, Lest she make you a name that stinks, The talk of the city, and accursed of the people, And shame you in the gathering at the gate" (Sir 42:11).
The whole charge
The charge runs end to end. From the heart turned over to a father in Proverbs (Pr 23:26) to the daily cross of the disciple (Lu 9:23), from the priestly courses set "as the duty of every day required" (2Ch 8:14) to the apostolic shepherd "exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly" (1Pe 5:2), the one shape under all of it is the obligation owed and discharged. "We are unprofitable slaves; we have done that which it was our duty to do" (Lu 17:10).