Whether God Ought to Be Obeyed in All Things?
Objection 1: It seems that God need not be obeyed in all things. For
it is written (Matt. 9:30, 31) that our Lord after healing the two
blind men commanded them, saying: "See that no man know this. But
they going out spread His fame abroad in all that country." Yet they
are not blamed for so doing. Therefore it seems that we are not bound
to obey God in all things.
Obj. 2: Further, no one is bound to do anything contrary to virtue.
Now we find that God commanded certain things contrary to virtue:
thus He commanded Abraham to slay his innocent son (Gen. 22); and the
Jews to steal the property of the Egyptians (Ex. 11), which things
are contrary to justice; and Osee to take to himself a woman who was
an adulteress (Osee 3), and this is contrary to chastity. Therefore
God is not to be obeyed in all things.
Obj. 3: Further, whoever obeys God conforms his will to the divine
will even as to the thing willed. But we are not bound in all things
to conform our will to the divine will as to the thing willed, as
stated above (I-II, Q. 19, A. 10). Therefore man is not bound to obey
God in all things.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ex. 24:7): "All things that the
Lord hath spoken we will do, and we will be obedient."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1), he who obeys is moved by the
command of the person he obeys, just as natural things are moved by
their motive causes. Now just a God is the first mover of all things
that are moved naturally, so too is He the first mover of all wills,
as shown above (I-II, Q. 9, A. 6). Therefore just as all natural
things are subject to the divine motion by a natural necessity so too
all wills, by a kind of necessity of justice, are bound to obey the
divine command.
Reply Obj. 1: Our Lord in telling the blind men to conceal the
miracle had no intention of binding them with the force of a divine
precept, but, as Gregory says (Moral. xix), "gave an example to His
servants who follow Him that they might wish to hide their virtue and
yet that it should be proclaimed against their will, in order that
others might profit by their example."
Reply Obj. 2: Even as God does nothing contrary to nature (since "the
nature of a thing is what God does therein," according to a gloss on
Rom. 11), and yet does certain things contrary to the wonted course
of nature; so to God can command nothing contrary to virtue since
virtue and rectitude of human will consist chiefly in conformity with
God's will and obedience to His command, although it be contrary to
the wonted mode of virtue. Accordingly, then, the command given to
Abraham to slay his innocent son was not contrary to justice, since
God is the author of life and death. Nor again was it contrary to
justice that He commanded the Jews to take things belonging to the
Egyptians, because all things are His, and He gives them to whom He
will. Nor was it contrary to chastity that Osee was commanded to take
an adulteress, because God Himself is the ordainer of human
generation, and the right manner of intercourse with woman is that
which He appoints. Hence it is evident that the persons aforesaid did
not sin, either by obeying God or by willing to obey Him.
Reply Obj. 3: Though man is not always bound to will what God wills,
yet he is always bound to will what God wills him to will. This comes
to man's knowledge chiefly through God's command, wherefore man is
bound to obey God's commands in all things.
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