Undivided Loyalty

“Undivided loyalty”. What are the things in your cultural context that threaten your loyalty to the one true living God and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ? What do you now recognize as subtle forms of syncretism?

This chapter calls for a robust refusal to renounce the claims of Christ, even under threats. What are the pressures- cultural, secular, or religious – that could tempt you to do that? How do the texts studied in this chapter help you resist?

Syncretism – the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles,practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.

There are several things in our current culture that can divide our loyalties, or excuse what God's word actually says. The most prominent issues I can think of that accomplish this, are gay marriage, sex before marriage, sports, politics, and technology. Each of these can easily work their way into our lives, and we can deny parts of the Bible, and in doing so God, to justify them. The others can be excused because they, in themselves, are not sin, but the way they are held, and treated in our society is sin. The commonality of these things being treated as they are in our culture, normalize and rationalize them, so we don't see a warning sign, all we see is what our culture has accepted as normal.

I know several Christians who, because of its social normalcy, have excluded portions of scripture in their lives to justify living with their significant other before marriage. I also know several Christians who have done the same in their lives to justify gay marriage, or their own gay inclinations. This most definitely compromises their loyalty to God.

When we exempt portions of scripture we turn a blind eye to pieces of who Christ is, and therefor turn our loyalties from Christ's decision making, and His sovereignty. One must ask the question, am I going to be loyal to myself, and/or my desires, or am I going to be loyal to Christ, and His decisions, and desires?

This is particularly well illustrated from the skit we saw in chapel on Friday, October 9. We as Christians come to Christ, understanding it is the correct decision to give Christ our life, our decisions, our everything. However, when we do that, we often steal back the seat of power for many moments in our lives. When we divide our loyalties between Christ and the social normalcy's of our culture, then we are no longer fully loyal to Christ. This is not just true of the subjects of gay and premarital sex, it is also true for our attitudes concerning sports, politics, and technology.

The sports industry has glorified the name of the players. We as a people have agreed, and supported this. We even get angry, sometimes violently angry when the referee makes a call we don't like, or our favorite team doesn't win. Sometimes we even organize our schedule around sports. (I personally have yet to see this done in a way that doesn't set God off of His throne in ones heart.) However, I have seen people love sports, and not hold it higher than God in their hearts. My old pastor loved sports, however, I never once saw him get upset or angry over a game, maybe disappointed or excited. However, he never let the sports or his emotions/prejudices of sports or a team, supersede his mood, or who he was called to be in Christ.

It is when we do let our emotions/prejudices supersede who Christ has called us to be, and what Christ has called us to do, that we are dividing our loyalties. Christians often divide their loyalties between God and politics. We can get so uptight about who's running, or who won, or what bill they just passed, that we react the same as we would for football. We get vehemently angry, and do not reflect Christ. In doing this we are holding our understandings, our partiality, and emotions, higher than the sovereignty of God, thus again dividing our loyalties.

Technology, as I mentioned earlier, is a huge tool for Satan to divide our loyalties. Technology has allowed invented forms of music, forms of entertainment, forms of visuals, that don't reflect God, to become prevalently accepted in the world. The secular radio is primarily filled with songs about sex, most often premarital sex. Now one might say just turn it off and don't listen to it. However, in my personal opinion, music is a way to express ones soul. I have found, in my observations and experience, that when people don't study music, they often need a form of music to listen to, or they get angry and/or depressed more often. The difficulty in this, is that secular music offers catchy, inappropriate, songs, that have been normalized. Whereas, Christian stations use the same music over and over, and they have often become shoved as the last resort, because their songs are not catchy enough. (that, in my opinion, is something that ought to be fixed. I think that Christians who write music, often write it on a “holy spirit high”, which I dislike, but that's for another paper, and what comes out of that high often still needs to be honed to be a lovely piece of music. I know of few, if any, contemporary composers, who write anywhere near to the beauty of what was written even half a century ago.)

The Christian music industry is beginning to realize that their audience is un-reached, and have responded by incorporating even more secular styles into their music. Now the music is becoming more chaotic, confusing, and just plain weird. It is becoming more of a reflection of our world, instead of a reflection of Christ. So not only do we need music, in my personal opinion, but our everyday options are often limited to music that does not reflect God, or just poorly done music. This has resulted in the secular stations becoming far more accepted, and normalized. Thus numbing us and dividing our loyalties.

The same thing has happened in the movie industry. It has become filled with violence, sex, sensuality, and chaos. With mostly poorly done options to substitute for them, although less than that in music, that they have become the norm, and have split our loyalties, between quality, and God honoring movies. Syncretism has run rampant in our society, primarily through the 5 resources previously listed.

We are so often tempted by these things because they are of better quality than things that don't divide our loyalties, or because they have become normal. We are to run from the things of this world so that we do not become numb to them and slowly accept them. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16)

I think a fantastic way to avoid getting an “anesthetic” from the world, is to become aware of what the Bible says about these things, and to flee them in the world, honoring God as the one and only Sovereignty, deserving loyalty and honor. “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” (1 Samuel 2:2) “There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45: 21 – 22) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
(Deuteronomy 6:4 – 5)

Turn to God, run from the poisons of the world into the glorious light of the one Holy God. Do not become angry, “because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:20) do not become bitter, yet “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)