Olney Hymns · Chapter
Love Constraining to Obedience explained
This poem contrasts the futile attempts to obey God through natural strength and legalistic striving with the liberating power of Christ's love.
What happens
This poem contrasts the futile attempts to obey God through natural strength and legalistic striving with the liberating power of Christ's love. It describes the transition from bondage under the law to joyful, willing obedience as a child of God, motivated by gratitude for pardon and the fulfillment of the law in Christ.
Themes in this chapter
Grace and Unmerited Favor
The poem celebrates the transition from striving under the law to receiving grace through Christ, which enables willing obedience.
Faith and Trust in Christ
The speaker moves from asking 'What shall I do?' to trusting in Christ's finished work, which changes duty into choice.
Characters to notice
- Jesus Christ
The Son in whom the believer is freely chosen and whose fulfillment of the law and pardoning voice transforms a slave into a child.
- The Lord
The one to be served aright and to whom the believer now renders gratitude.
- The Narrator
The speaker who recounts the personal journey from legal bondage to gracious obedience.
Key passages
“No strength of nature can suffice To serve the Lord aright; And what she has she misapplies, For want of clearer light.”
Human effort alone is insufficient to obey God properly; our natural abilities are misused without divine illumination.
The opening stanza establishes the inadequacy of human strength for true obedience.
“How long beneath the law I lay In bondage and distress! I toil’d the precept to obey, But toil’d without success.”
For a long time I was enslaved and troubled under the law, laboring to keep its commands but failing.
The speaker describes the futile struggle of legalistic obedience.
“Then to abstain from outward sin Was more than I could do: Now, if I feel its power within, I feel I hate it too.”
Previously, even avoiding external sin was impossible; now, when I sense sin's internal influence, I also feel hatred for it.
The transformation from outward restraint to inward holiness is highlighted.
“Then all my servile works were done A righteousness to raise; Now freely chosen in the Son, I freely choose his ways.”
My former works were slavish attempts to build my own righteousness; now, being chosen in Christ, I willingly follow his paths.
The shift from self-righteousness to gospel freedom is expressed.
“What shall I do, was then the word. That I may worthier grow? What shall I render to the Lord? Is my inquiry now.”
My old question was 'What must I do to become more worthy?' Now I ask 'What can I give back to the Lord?'
The motivation changes from earning favor to responding in gratitude.
“To see the law by Christ fulfill’d, And hear his pard’ning voice, Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice.”
Seeing Christ fulfill the law and hearing his pardon transforms a slave into a child, and makes obedience a matter of choice rather than compulsion.
The climax emphasizes the liberating effect of Christ's work.