Semper fi (semper fidelis) is the Marine Corps motto. It is Latin for “always faithful” or “loyal.” I have known a few Marines, and they take this seriously. Marines pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag, Constitution, and nation and are willing to defend her in times of war at the cost of their lives. Semper fi could easily be the motto for disciples of Christ, too. A follower of Christ, above all else, is loyal to Jesus the Lord.
But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15 (NLT)
Just as Joshua called Israel to choose whom they would serve, Jesus told his followers that they would have to choose between him and every other competing allegiance. The early disciples understood this very well.
The modern church has allowed a type of syncretism to invade the church that deceives people into thinking that they can maintain allegiance to Jesus and competing gods, ideologies, and kingdoms, without ever grasping that devotion to one is the betrayal of the other.
Jesus put it well regarding our relationship with the kingdom of Mammon.
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24 (NLT)
Money is not the only master that craves our allegiance. This article will take a look at what it means to be loyal to the Lord Jesus and how that impacts our relationship with competing ideologies and kingdoms.
Allegiance to Christ
In his exceptional book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, Matthew Bates shows conclusively that one major aspect of faith is allegiance. You can read my book summary by clicking on the above link, if you want to follow his argument. To summarize, not only is faith trusting in the efficacy of Christ’s atoning work on the cross, it also is acknowledging his Lordship as demonstrated through his resurrection.
Christ’s death on the cross invites us to receive the benefits of his atoning sacrifice. The proper response to his resurrection is to surrender to his lordship and show continuing allegiance to him thereafter.
Bates writes:
When the full gospel is presented, the call to action is organically embedded in the story. Jesus the enthroned king has summoned everyone, including you and me, to turn away from all other allegiances and to give him exclusive loyalty. (p. 202)
Jesus clearly taught this truth.
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.Matthew 10:32-39 (ESV)
A danger for us lies in trying to harmonize opposing loyalties, thinking that it is possible to maintain peace between warring kingdoms. James clearly states the necessity for us to choose sides.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4 (ESV)
When we fail to take sides, we side against the Lord and commit a form of spiritual adultery, a very sobering thought.
He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. Luke 11:23 (NASB)
Jesus vs. The Kingdom of Self
God created us to live in synchronized dependence upon the indwelling Holy Spirit. Imagine a flock of birds wheeling in the sky, seemingly being conducted by God himself as they veer on cue in unison. Perhaps they are. This is a great picture of what it means to live in harmony with the Spirit, which is the normal Christian life. (I recommend that you read Watchman Nee’s book, The Normal Christian Life. See my summary. ) Humans have a spirit, soul, and a body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). God designed us so that our spirits would take the lead in sync with God, with our souls and bodies following effortlessly. The spirit is where we connect with God. It is the innermost part of us that is unified with God’s Spirit when we are born again (1 Corinthians 6:17). When Adam and Eve elected to disobey God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they forsook their spiritual dependence upon God, choosing to live independent self-directed lives. This choice resulted in death and destruction and created in us an inborn propensity, perhaps a lust, to experience life on our terms without reference to God. Jesus came to restore us to his Father’s original plan, but it came at great cost to him. He had to lay aside his own inherent desire for self-preservation and security in order to please the Father by dying as our substitute, the Lamb of God.
Jesus’ willingness to lay down his own soul and physical life is the only reason we have been given the opportunity to lay down our own. Disciples are called to follow Jesus’ example by willingly dying to the kingdom of self in order to show full allegiance to God.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV)
The essence of discipleship is renouncing our sinful allegiance to self and declaring full allegiance to Christ. This is the part of the significance of water baptism, which is a public declaration of allegiance to our Lord. The symbolism of going down into the water and rising up out of it reflects that we died to our old way of life and now seek to live exclusively for him.
Death to self is all inclusive, yet Jesus usually collects in small payments over a lifetime. Some of us quickly yield large chunks of our soul to his lordship. For others it is a long, tedious, and painful process. Becoming a disciple is comparable to signing a blank check, knowing that Jesus will fill in the amount later, whenever he pleases and for whatever amount he desires.
The kingdom of self prefers a personal Savior to a Lord. A personal Savior will rescue me from hell without intruding on my day to day life, but a Lord requires everything from me.
Jesus vs. the Kingdom of Family
The Bible is full of examples of God’s people being more loyal to their loved ones than to him, and it always has bad results. The first person who comes to mind is Adam. He decided to support Eve in her rebellion rather than obey of God. Abraham listened to Sarah’s unbelief, had a baby through her servant Hagar, and now we have huge international problems as a result. Eli the priest did not call his rebellious sons on the carpet, showing he preferred them over God. (This is God’s account of the matter, as related to the young Samuel (1 Samuel 3:12-14). David failed to properly discipline his son, Amnon, for raping his half-sister Tamar. His lapse of imposing God’s justice on a beloved son set the stage for a seed of bitterness to be sown in Absalom’s heart, which turned to hatred and outright rebellion. The entire kingdom went to war because David loved Amnon more than God. David was a man after God’s own heart, but even he was plagued by competing loyalties involving family.
God wants us to love our families dearly, but without ever allowing that love to hinder our devotion to him.
There may be times when we are forced to choose sides between loved ones and God. Allegiance to Jesus will always lead us to choose the God side.
This is easily seen when a new believer has to elect between following Jesus and retaining a good standing with the family. In Islamic countries, this choice might also include the threat of death. It is somewhat less clear, perhaps, when one spouse wants to fully follow Jesus, but the other does not. Or when children resist their parents and don’t want to attend church meetings with them. Sometimes disciples get weary facing the resistance offered by non-compliant family members and decide to scale back their devotion and obedience to God. All of these situations test our loyalty to God.
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Mark 10:29-31 (ESV)
Let me conclude by saying that allegiance to Christ is never an excuse or pretext to ignore, abandon, or neglect our loved ones. Faithfulness to family is an earmark of a true disciple (1 Timothy 5:8), as long as it does not pull him or her away from our primary loyalty to God.
Jesus vs. the Kingdom of Mammon
Mammon is one of the most insidious masters of all. In America we consider the pursuit of wealth part of our birthright, along with the pursuit of happiness. Such thinking has even invaded the church in the form of what some call the “prosperity gospel.” While having money is certainly not in itself a bad thing, money is a root of all sorts of evil, according to the Bible.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 Timothy 6:9-10 (ESV)
The average Christian does not understand the pernicious pull of money away from the things of God. When the cost of things is our first consideration when deciding on a course of action, it is possible that money rather than God is at the helm in our lives. When we choose to hoard what we have rather than tithe or otherwise be generous, we are serving the wrong god. The love of money can exist in the hearts of poor as well as the rich. It is an attitude of the heart. Likewise, it is possible to have great wealth but not be owned by it.
Ownership is the central issue. Does God own our money, for which we act as his stewards, or do we imagine it belongs to us?
Jesus made it clear that our possessions can end up owning us if we are not careful.
But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:20-21 (ESV)
Jesus vs. the Kingdoms of This World
Before Jesus entered into public ministry, the devil tempted him to pursue the acquisition of power and authority over the kingdoms of this world illegitimately.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8-9 (ESV)
This was a clear cut case of choosing between competing allegiances.
The kingdom of God is an “imperium.” It is the most glorious and powerful kingdom that will eventually destroy and replace all competing kingdoms. (Daniel 7:13-14)
The devil and earthly authorities and kingdoms seek our unqualified allegiance, just as Satan asked for from Jesus. They want us to bow down to them, in the same way as Nebuchadnezzar demanded that all his subjects bow down to the golden image of himself or suffer death. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused and were thrown into the fiery furnace for their courageous allegiance to God. Jesus or an angel (“one like a son of the gods”) met them there, keeping them alive to the great astonishment of the Babylonian king, which resulted in his conversion of a sort. Allegiance to God’s kingdom may carry a large price tag, but loyalty lived out actually can change the course of history.
There is a great clash between worldly kingdoms and our Lord’s. It is not always apparent, which is especially the case in the U.S., where our democratic republic enlists the cooperation of its subjects, embroiling them in politics and government. (For a in depth analysis, you may wish to read my summary of Between Babel and Beast by Peter Leithart.) We are taught that it is our civic and religious duty to be good citizens. The government has cleverly co-opted religion with our consent. In Paul’s day, it was much different. The governments of Israel and Rome were hostile to the faith, persecuting it even to the death at times. Believers, for the most part, were not tempted to join the government, but kept a safe distance by necessity. Government wants to “suck us into its bowels,” seeks our allegiance, and demands us to die for it, as needed. It claims ownership of our land and other property, which we rent back by paying our taxes. It claims ownership of our children, which we retain if we follow the rules. It licenses nearly everything and even tries to impose limits on what churches can teach.
As long as governments stay within their divinely sanctioned limits of providing order, justice, and protection, things can work pretty well.
It is when government aggrandizes itself and begins taking upon itself what belongs properly to God that our allegiances are tested. Jesus taught that we must give to government what properly belongs to it – honor, taxes, and limited allegiance, but we must give ultimate allegiance to God alone. (Mark 12:17)
When government demands that we disobey God or otherwise violate our consciences, we are required to disobey, while still maintaining a proper reverence for authority.
Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! Acts 5:27-29 (NIV)
Today we face potential threats from government when it tells us what stance we must take regarding homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion. If things continue to spiral downward, disciples of our Lord may have to choose between obedience to God and obedience to the state, between freedom and imprisonment. In China, believers are routinely imprisoned for not kowtowing to the State. In Islamic nations, martyrdom is often the consequence. But this is all part of God’s wise plan. Whereas government wants to use us to further its ambitions, Jesus asks us to voluntarily offer our lives as part of his plan to bring into line godless powers and authorities. Instead of using the force of arms, God uses the power of martyrdom.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11 (NIV)
Martyrdom is perhaps the highest form of declaring allegiance to the Lord Jesus. Islam asks its martyrs to die in the pursuit of forcing others to bow to Allah. Christ asks his followers to offer their lives to him as part of his plan to release divine power on the earth to save many souls and bring down every rival kingdom. As the church father, Tertullian, wrote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Truly God’s ways are not ours!
Conclusion
A disciple lives by faith, which is a combination of declared allegiance to the Lord Jesus and complete trust in the efficacy of the finished work of Christ and the power of outpoured grace through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The secret of the New Covenant is that God not only forgives and reconciles us to himself, but he also lives his own life through us.
Jesus told his followers:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
Serving such a God is more of a joy than a requirement, more of an adventure than a duty. Choosing sides in a world of competing allegiances is fairly straightforward, once we understand who Jesus is and what is at stake. Living up to our declared allegiance is impossible on our own, but it is completely doable with God’s help.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV)
Prayer
Jesus, I confess that you alone are Lord. I give you my heart, my hopes, my dreams, my past, my present, and my future – my life itself. Help me to be loyal to you above all other competing allegiances. I love you more than my own life, my family, money, my beloved country… everything. Holy Spirit I depend on you to live Christ’s life through me. I am not up to doing this alone, and you never intended me to do so. I dedicate myself to your Kingdom and mission and know that you will never ever leave or forsake me. Amen.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. Psalm 63:3-5 (NLT)
