Past masters of the Christian life stressed that it is not lived on the basis of our feelings but in fulfilling duties. Sanctification is not a mood condition, but the submission of our wills to the will of God.
In recent decades, evangelicalism has become so sensitive to the heresy of "Boy Scout Christianity" ("I promise to do my best, to do my duty…") that it has truncated the Christian gospel to a half-Christ (Savior, but not Lord) and a half-salvation (blessings, but not duties). How foolish we have been, when so much of the New Testament catalogs the specific duties that arise out of our relationship to Jesus Christ and therefore are in fact among our blessings.
A survey of a few passages in the Epistles will exorcise the demon of thinking that duty is alien to Christian living or to Christian love. Just look at Romans 12:1-15; Galatians 5:13-6:10; Ephesians 4:1-6:20; Philippians 4:2-9; Colossians 3:1-4:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15; James 1:19-5:20; and 1 Peter 1:13-5:11. Doubtless some scholar somewhere has counted the number of imperatives ("Do so-and-so") in the New Testament. Everyone of them matters; everyone of them grows out of God's grace; everyone of them was written to be obeyed.
Are we frightened that fulfilling our duties will overturn the grace of God? Look at the busy housewife whose entire life is governed by her multifaceted responsibilities. While her husband enters his own world (often exciting and challenging), she makes the lunches, drives the children to school, shops, cleans, washes, irons, mends, prepares the meals, cleans up, and gets the children to bed. Why? Duty. These are the duties of love, devotion, and commitment.
Love for God and duty are two parts of the same thing. How foolish we have been to separate them and to regard duty as a bad word. It nourishes Christlikeness (John 4:34). Therefore, know your Christian duties and fulfill them.
— Sinclair B. Ferguson, In Christ Alone, pp. 160f
Having come out of the Charismatic movement of the 1970s, I think that initially I rebelled against the commandments of God thinking that in some way they smacked against my free will and acceptance of the sacrificial grace of Christ's work. But now, as I am growing into a fuller knowledge of the work of Christ and the absolute sovereignty of God behind that work, I am more aware of my "duties" are more than just marks of performance (grudgingly given by the way); no they are my thank offering to God for His great grace in my life. Afterall, He could have chosen someone other than this sinner to save -- then I'd be "free to obey" my sin-blackened heart.
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