Where
Does Your Loyalty Lie?
As a very young Christian in 1976 I
was chatting with another Christian
after church one day. She asked me a question, and I did not
realize until now the significance of the question.
The question was, "Have you made a
commitment to a local church?"
My answer, after pondering the
question for a short while was
this: "When I got saved I committed everything to Jesus, so I
don't think that I have anything left to commit to the church."
I could tell that this was the wrong
answer from her perspective as she
turned and walked away from me as if I were a leper. But now I
realize that her perspective was that of a carnal Christian.
One mark of a carnal Christian
according to the Apostle Paul, and of a
person who is unworthy of Jesus according to Jesus, is that their
loyalty lies with a person other than Jesus Christ. Paul
expressed his view of the evidence of carnality thus:
1Co 3:1 And
I, brothers, was not
able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in
Christ.
1Co 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, and not solid food; for you
were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, neither are you now yet able;
1Co 3:3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy,
strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal, and walking
according to human principles?
1Co 3:4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of
Apollos," are you not carnal?
1Co 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers
through whom you believed, as the Lord has given to each one?
1Co 3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the increase.
1Co 3:7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who
waters, but God who gives the increase.
It is the identification of a person
by their leader or teacher which
shows spiritual immaturity or 'carnality'. This condition, in my
opinion, is the result of a person relying on their own understanding
or some leader's understanding more than trusting God with their
heart. Such a person has not come to the point of mistrusting
themselves or their leaders enough to shift their allegiance to God
alone.
Jesus expressed this condition thus:
Mat 10:32
"Therefore whoever who
will confess Me before men, I also will confess Him before My Father
who is in heaven.
Mat 10:33 But whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny him
before My Father who is in heaven.
Mat 10:34 "Do not suppose that I came to bring peace on earth. I
did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I have come to 'turn a man against his father, and
a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law';
Mat 10:36 and 'a man's enemies will be his own household
members.'
Mat 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not
worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not
worthy of Me.
Mat 10:38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me
is not worthy of Me.
Mat 10:39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses
his life for My sake will find it.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ over
one's self and one's family
members, not to mention others, causes a person to be 'not worthy' of
Jesus.
God will allow people to muddle along
in life serving themselves or
someone else in the hope that we will eventually recognize the folly of
our way and turn to Jesus to be our Savior from sin and the Lord of our
lives instead of ourselves or someone else lording it over us.
The rest of the world may do this, but God requires unconditional
surrender to Him and His Son Jesus for a person to be able to become
loyal to God and His Son alone!
Have you, dear reader, reached that
point of desperation yet?