What it means to be A Christian...Everything is a Loyalty test.

This began as a blog post I was drafting last Saturday. I ended up preaching it on Sunday.   

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Recently we have heard a lot about loyalty tests. This should not be something new or surprising to disciples of Jesus Christ. The high calling of following Jesus has always created social and cultural dislocation for the Church. When it has not, when the church feels comfortable and at ease, when she has functioned as an extension of some aspect of culture, when it has the ear of Empire: that has been a sign of compromise and failure. 

The question we confront now is very simple. Is the Church even able to hear the call of the Master? How can we hear His call when the sheep-fold is filled with worldly chatter? How can we pass loyalty tests when some have left the fold and do not know they are wandering?  Can we even hear His voice? Particularly when He says things like: 

“Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26–27 ESV)

“Matthew 16:21   From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Matthew 16:22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Matthew 16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:21–24 ESV)

I can clearly imagine the shock on Jesus’ face as He remembers another day in another deserted place. The adversary had come to Him offering the wealth, the power, the pomp and the pageantry of Empire. With no messy cross. No Gospel.

He stood opposed to such temptation and Satan fled but here Peter, one of His chosen, one of His students, a friend and confident offers the same compromise...fails the same loyalty test. What Jesus said to Peter then should shake us from the allure, the seduction-yes the temptation of a crossless gospel and a sacrifice-free discipleship. We must choose, the things of God over the things of man. We we must set our minds, we must commit ourselves, pledge our allegiance and forsake all else for His Kingdom for the majesty of the things of God.

In our hope to circumvent what is difficult and demanding we try and  lower the threshold of obedient discipleship. To negotiate the terms. To move the boundaries. To redefine the terms of Loyalty.

Let me be clear. To domesticate and decrease the demands of discipleship is to deny the Master. 

If you wear the name of Christ you have pledged your loyalty, your faithfulness, your very person to a jealous Master who has placed a deposit of Himself within you. The Holy Spirit is a mark of Jesus' loyalty to you. When you are confused about your loyaty to Jesus, that Holy Spirit-God's jealous deposit-is grieved.  When individual disciples are crippled, when  "their conduct was not in step with ^jthe truth of the gospel" (Galatians 2.14a ESV) the entire Body of Christ walks with a limp and the Kingdom of God cannot point a fallen world or a corrupt empire to the cross. 

What is to be done?  Paul, writing to a factionally divide Corinthinan Church wrote this. 

“1Corinthians 3:10   According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 1Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:10–11 ESV)

If you are building your life on any  party, political figure, policy, plan, personality or program other than Jesus Christ you are failing this loyalty test. 

Any  foundation, other than Jesus Christ-is un-biblical. Any foundation other than Jesus is  un-Christian. Any foundation other than Jesus is, ultimately, un-safe.   For far too long we have pointed to others when they fail this test, questioned their theology, their integrity-or both. It is past time for us to recognize and repent of this hypocrisy. Loyalty tests are as good for the goose as the gander. 

January 6 was a significant day. Half of the Christian world celebrated Christmas. If you ever visited my father between Christmas and January 6 his tree would still be up. If you would ask he would tell you “We always keep the tree up till Greek Christmas!!” Free-church protestants, Catholics, Orthodox of all theological stripes-all of us have just completed the celebration of incarnation. 

When Jesus was born Augustus Caesar was the most powerful man in the world. He arrogated to himself the Titles:

• Prince of peace

• Son of God 

• Lord of Lords

Jesus was, of course, born to those titles. When our martyr ancestors proclaimed Jesus is Lord! it was a loyalty test. When the Gospel writers rightly  called Him Prince of peace, Son of God Lord of Lords...It was a loyalty test. When Kingdom was set against Empire it was a loyalty test. Have we forgotten completely and forsaken entirely the sacrificial confession of those who went before us? When your life is at stake the choice is Crystal clear: 

• To choose Jesus is to stand opposed to Empire,

• To choose Jesus is to deny the power of politics to save,

• To choose Jesus is to choose eternal life...

• To choose Jesus is to choose eternal liberty...

• to choose Jesus is to choose, eternal joy...forsaking mere earthly happiness.

Loyalty Tests? Loyalty Tests? Every day. Jesus is Lord! He does not share His authority with anyone. There is no “Jesus...and” Christianity. There is no Hyphenated abberation of the Kingdom. There is no Christian Socialism, Christian Nationalism, Christian politics, Christian economics, Christian   this or that. This compromise which seems like high-minded principle is to fail the Loyalty test of the Lordship of Christ. 

In pursuing empire we have betrayed the gospel, compromised our witness, abandoned our calling, and forsaken our Master. We must repent and leave behind this Kingdom-betraying course. 

It was simplistic and childish, yet we used to often say that if “Jesus isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.” Simple words to remind us that for the Christian...everything is a loyalty test.