Are you loyal to Jesus Christ?

Loyalty is an unwavering commitment to a relationship and/or person(s). To a large extent, it determines the depth and strength of any relationship but it appears to be one of those things slipping away and becoming irrelevant in today’s world. No matter how sweet a relationship may seem, the test of loyalty is always required to determine its strength and true sweetness. Reality is that as life goes on, every relationship will be tested and our relationship with Christ is no different. Loyalty cost something; a price that some don’t have in them to pay and are unwilling to acquire but this is slowly destroying the church of Christ. These are people who don’t mean harm but they are only loyal to themselves so that they can flake out on anyone, without considering the consequences, immediately they feel the relationship is no longer meeting their need. That word means nothing to them. Sadly, they are beginning to make loyalty look like stupidity, making fun of loyal people, taking full advantage of them and even going to the extent of trying to “enslave” them so that loyal people feel compelled to move away from being loyal in trying to enforce their individuality and/or “right to liberty” in Christ.  This is the problem of some believers even today. A big problem because not only are we not true friends to one another, we are unable to return the true friendship that Christ offers us and desires in return.

 

Proverbs 17: 17 “a friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.”

 

Psalms 78: 35 - 37 “Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God most High was their redeemer. But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues. Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.”

 

Jesus lays down the rules for a relationship with Him which disloyal persons will be unable to adhere to much as they may desire to be His disciples. Loyalty is deep and may require of one what one never thought of or even bargained for and such is the reality of our walk with God but we are moving away from it and tending more toward selfishness. Selfishness and disloyalty are promoted in today’s world and these are real issues for Christianity and even society at large. These facilitate corruption and every evil work. We have been lured into a snare where in making fun of and taking advantage of loyal people, we actually abuse them without meaning to thereby attempting to destroy that godly nature just in our bid to promote selfishness and/or disloyalty but this is slowly destroying persons, families and society. Though we claim to be Disciples of Christ, we are extremely selfish creatures and even teaching it to our children so that we are sowing our evil into generations of believers following after us. Interestingly, to every disloyal person, everyone is also suspect because they interpret everything through their very myopic minds and slowly our fellowship is dying because love isn’t real without loyalty. Fellowship speaks of relationships and that is God’s plan for us but how can we then fellowship meaningfully when we are all guarded and very suspicious of one another. Trust is completely lacking and maybe not without reason but is this really love?

 

John 13: 35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

 

I hope I am not getting old too fast but I seem to recall a time when if a believer did something wrong, and one is unable to let them know or maybe it would be inappropriate for the one who saw them to make the corrections, they could speak to someone who was better positioned to make the correction; but today, it may be tough because it would be referred to as gossip and no one wants that label so we all say nothing and more people are self - destructing but is that love? We see children doing wrong and we can’t tell persons better positioned to speak to the child’s parents because we would be referred to as gossips. This pattern started with people being unable to speak truth because they would be labelled judgmental and no one likes that. So people just got away with doing anything since we all don’t want to be judgmental but our faith is slowly getting destroyed and we are losing the liberty we once had in Christ. The openness and sincerity with wish we related because we were loyal to Christ and therefore to one another since our relationships were rooted in Christ. Loyalty was celebrated and everyone desired to be absolutely loyal to Christ. In being loyal to Him, you saw through His eyes and as a result you loved and were loyal to everyone He is loyal to. False brethren have crept in and are truly stealing the liberty we once had in Christ. Christ demands loyalty otherwise He would not require us to carry our cross. If you are loyal to Him, you will pay the price required and continue to pay it to the end. It is time to think very deeply so that we do not end up losing our salvation as well as mislead generations coming after us.