Whether One Man Is Bound to Obey Another?
Objection 1: It seems that one man is not bound to obey another. For
nothing should be done contrary to the divine ordinance. Now God has
so ordered that man is ruled by his own counsel, according to Ecclus.
15:14, "God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of
his own counsel." Therefore one man is not bound to obey another.
Obj. 2: Further, if one man were bound to obey another, he would have
to look upon the will of the person commanding him, as being his rule
of conduct. Now God's will alone, which is always right, is a rule of
human conduct. Therefore man is bound to obey none but God.
Obj. 3: Further, the more gratuitous the service the more is it
acceptable. Now what a man does out of duty is not gratuitous.
Therefore if a man were bound in duty to obey others in doing good
deeds, for this very reason his good deeds would be rendered less
acceptable through being done out of obedience. Therefore one man is
not bound to obey another.
_On the contrary,_ It is prescribed (Heb. 13:17): "Obey your prelates
and be subject to them."
_I answer that,_ Just as the actions of natural things proceed from
natural powers, so do human actions proceed from the human will. In
natural things it behooved the higher to move the lower to their
actions by the excellence of the natural power bestowed on them by
God: and so in human affairs also the higher must move the lower by
their will in virtue of a divinely established authority. Now to move
by reason and will is to command. Wherefore just as in virtue of the
divinely established natural order the lower natural things need to
be subject to the movement of the higher, so too in human affairs, in
virtue of the order of natural and divine law, inferiors are bound to
obey their superiors.
Reply Obj. 1: God left man in the hand of his own counsel, not as
though it were lawful to him to do whatever he will, but because,
unlike irrational creatures, he is not compelled by natural necessity
to do what he ought to do, but is left the free choice proceeding
from his own counsel. And just as he has to proceed on his own
counsel in doing other things, so too has he in the point of obeying
his superiors. For Gregory says (Moral. xxxv), "When we humbly give
way to another's voice, we overcome ourselves in our own hearts."
Reply Obj. 2: The will of God is the first rule whereby all rational
wills are regulated: and to this rule one will approaches more than
another, according to a divinely appointed order. Hence the will of
the one man who issues a command may be as a second rule to the will
of this other man who obeys him.
Reply Obj. 3: A thing may be deemed gratuitous in two ways. In one
way on the part of the deed itself, because, to wit, one is not bound
to do it; in another way, on the part of the doer, because he does it
of his own free will. Now a deed is rendered virtuous, praiseworthy
and meritorious, chiefly according as it proceeds from the will.
Wherefore although obedience be a duty, if one obey with a prompt
will, one's merit is not for that reason diminished, especially
before God, Who sees not only the outward deed, but also the inward
will.
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