Chapter Three
Divided Loyalties
The Church has been facing a crisis for some
time now, a crisis surrounding the question of relevance. Its critics claim that the Church and
the Gospel have ceased being relevant and meaningful. Many have sought to answer this crisis by searching for ways
to connect with the culture outside the Church, a challenge to say the
least. Some programs and plans may
have limited success in drawing some into the Church, but the question
regarding the crisis needs some kind of answer: why has the Church and the
Gospel lost its relevance in a world so desperately in need of both Christ’s community and
message? Part of the answer,
though it is surely a complicated one, lies in understanding that Christians
are called to a way of life. Their
style of living is to be culturally distinct from the world they find
themselves in. It is this way of
life that makes the Church the salt of the earth and the light of the
world. The Church needs to recall
its spiritual culture and live according to it in order to be relevant, which
will give the treasure of the gospel which they hold real meaning in today’s world.
To be in the world but not of the world can be
understood to mean that our way of living in this world is based on the spiritual
culture of the kingdom of heaven and not according to the culture of the
world. It means that our way of
living is based on a paradigm that views the world from a kingdom point of
view. The Church cannot think of
itself in terms of being an institution and hope to be relevant. It has to offer more than a religious
system in order to impact the world.
We need to understand that the community of Christ itself is to be the
touch point between the world and the Church. It is only as Christians as individuals live a distinctly
Christian style of life that they can hope to share and reveal the Gospel. The ability to live this way of life
comes from being a part of true community with others. We grow in our understanding of the
Christian way of life when we are part of Christian community.
I know many Christians who view going to church
as either a waste of time or simply unnecessary. When asked why, they usually answer
that they find fellowship with other Christians outside of a church meeting fulfills
their spiritual needs. Whether
that is entirely true or not is another topic, but what does become clear is
what they are thirsty for. They
want and need community and relationship, not religion as such. Now if there are Christians who feel
this way, how much more so those who are not? The only connection that many non-Christians will ever have
with the Church and the Gospel are the Christians they meet. If we are not living a Christian style
of life then they will not experience or encounter Christ, the Gospel, through
us. If they do not encounter a
different paradigm, a different culture, then they will not experience or
encounter the presence of the kingdom in their lives.
We begin to see that the spiritual culture of
the kingdom and the style of living that it should engender are the means by
which the Church and the Gospel can be relevant and meaningful in a darkened
world in need of our salt and light.
The challenge begins with us, the Church. Will we be those who live a in the culture of the kingdom or
will we be Christians who believe in Jesus, but ascribe to the world culture we
live in?
The title of this chapter ought to be becoming
clear now, for part of the Church’s crisis today has arisen out of our divided
loyalties to the world and the kingdom.
The spiritual reality is that there actually is no room for divided
loyalties in the kingdom of heaven.
We cannot serve two masters.
We encounter the struggle for our loyalty to
the kingdom every day. Our
loyalties are vied for on two fronts.
World culture attempts to demand our loyalty while we are offered
loyalty to the kingdom of heaven.
Good Advice vs. Good News
Christians face a choice of loyalty when they
consider the implications of the Gospel.
The picture is fairly simple, either the Gospel is truly the way of life
that Jesus has revealed to us or it is merely good advice on how to live. The second choice reduces the Gospel to
an option while the first
raises it to a true
form of spirituality brave enough to say, “This is the only option, this is the way to
live always.” When we treat the Gospel
as optional advice we rob it of its power and render it ineffective. It allows spiritual space for living a
different way of life no aligned with the spiritual culture of the kingdom. When we treat the Gospel as good advice
we set aside the lordship of Christ and do as we please, ignoring the presence
of his Spirit in our lives. The
Holy Spirit will always be guiding us to live according to the way of the
Gospel, to live according t the spiritual culture of the kingdom. To love our enemies, for example, is an
issue of loyalty to the kingdom.
It is difficult to love our enemies and easy to avoid if the Gospel is
held only as optional advice. If
we choose loyalty to the kingdom first we will have the empowerment of the Holy
Spirit to do what is seemingly impossible and love our enemies and pray for
those who persecute us. There is
no other choice or way of living for those whose loyalty is to the kingdom and
its culture. The Gospel is good
news because it is the revelation of this way of living. When our loyalty fails in the form of
optional good advice our Gospel fails to have real power and inevitably becomes
irrelevant to the world.
World culture would prefer it if we would treat
the Gospel as optional good advice, and will even tolerate the Gospel as an
acceptable system of ethics. Yet
the spiritual culture of the kingdom precludes this choice and reveals the
Gospel as more than a system. It
is to be that which forms the Christian style of life, the sole way to
live. To put it in the strongest
terms, to love God and love your neighbor is a gospel command, not to be
considered a flexible option. This
way of thinking lies at the heart of the issue of divided loyalties. Christians cannot buy into the illusion
of optional faith, choosing from situation to situation if they will live
according to the good news or not.
They must choose to live according to the spiritual culture of the
kingdom in all situations always.
This what it means to be a disciple and to follow Christ.
Freedom vs. Submission
In the contrast between world and kingdom
culture there is a great tension between the concept of freedom. To be free is an integral value in world
culture. To be free is also an
integral value in kingdom culture, for as Jesus says “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” A major theme of the Gospel is that men
live in spiritual slavery from which they are to be freed through the
redemption of Christ. So what is
true freedom? What the world calls
freedom is not truly freedom but illusion. World culture sees freedom in terms of being able to do as
you please when you please serving your own self interest, in other words being
your own master. This is a very
old lie that should be familiar to those who know the story of Eden. Such freedom only perpetuates spiritual
bondage, for the reality is that to be one’s own master doing whatever pleases them is
rooted in sin, specifically the sin of rebellion. What is rooted in sin can only lead to death and thus this
freedom is not freedom but slavery and imprisonment.
In the spiritual culture of the kingdom freedom
comes through submission. This
reality may be culturally offensive to the world because it does not conform to
its understanding of what it means to be free. Yet there is no greater picture of human freedom than that
seen in Eden before the Fall. Adam
and Eve lived in the fullness of shalom with God, each other and creation. They lived in submission to the order
that God had put in place and were truly free. The Fall was very much a loss of freedom as well as the
introduction of sin into the human experience. The Gospel and the essence of kingdom culture is about the
restoration of that freedom. To be
set free from the destruction and death of sin; to be set free from the kingdom
of darkness which derives its power from the act of rebellion in the garden; to
be set free from the illusion of freedom offered by world culture; to be set
free from spiritual darkness; and to be set free from the cycle of broken
relationships with God, each other, and even creation. This is the freedom offered in the
kingdom. The spiritual culture of
the kingdom is about living in freedom.
It reveals a way of life that leads to a spiritual life of freedom not
influenced or affected by situation.
This freedom comes through submission to our king and savior Jesus. Through our submission to him we live
in the freedom of his kingdom.
Submission is like a door through which we enter that spiritual
reality and leave behind the illusions of world culture. When we cede our throne to Christ we
are freed from being our own rebellious masters and we are freed from the
oppression of the kingdom of darkness.
Now that spiritual enemy contends with the king of heaven instead of
dominating us who have no power outside of Christ to defend against it. Christians then, must choose between
loyalty and submission to Jesus the king and loyalty to the illusion of world
culture, which tells them that to be their own masters is to be free.
The Law of Love
Love forms the core of the spiritual culture of the kingdom. Matthew 22:34-40 is the cultural basis
of the kingdom. The New Testament
writers expand on and stress this core extensively. There is one law in the kingdom of heaven and that is to
love. Love God and love people
sums the law up. As my friend Ward
likes to say “Love God, love people, and let him sort out the rest.” Our loyalty to this cultural value is
imperative and cannot be viewed as optional. It is this value more than any other that makes kingdom
culture distinct from world culture.
The community of Christ is to love God, not harbor anger, bitterness, or
blame towards him. We are to love
him with all our being; spirit, heart, soul, mind, fingers, toes, foreheads etc… We cannot give away our loyalty and
love to other ‘gods’
whatever those may be whether spiritual or material. So too we are called to love others. This may be the more difficult command
for some. It is people after all
who cause us pain, disappointment, fear, anger, frustration etc… Yet to love others is a command, not an
option in the culture of the kingdom.
It is a love that must have its roots in the first command for it is by
our love for God that we become people able to love others even in the most
difficult of encounters with them.
Loyalty to the love of world culture leads us to love those who love us,
but loyalty to kingdom culture leads us to love those who hate us. Two radically different paradigms and
cultural values. The choice is
straightforward even if the challenge is difficult. To choose this loyalty to the kingdom requires a deep love
for God. The importance of loving
others cannot be overstated, for it is on this value that the Church is most
often judged. When the Christian style of life is not
marked by love it causes the world to view the community of Christ as a closed
system of belief that does not accept others, does not care about others, and
judges them as being unfit for God’s love.
As a result the Gospel vanishes into thin air. Without love the Church has no means of touching the world
culture around it and becomes just one more irrelevant religious institution
instead of a powerful spiritual community that is the salt of the earth and the
light of the world.
As the Church has taken on the role of a moral
watchdog it has forgotten its first calling to love. When the Church sits as judge proclaiming judgment for sin
and social failure in the world as its primary ministry without any hint of the
love of God for broken humanity, a dangerous error has occurred. Not only does this not advance the
Gospel, it alienates the very people in need of the Gospel. A Church that sees itself as Judge has
adopted world culture instead of kingdom culture where Jesus is the only one
given authority to judge. If the
community of Christ is to love its enemies, then it follows that they should be
showing love to sinners and the broken people of the world. God has touched all Christians through
his mercy and love, for these triumph over judgment. When the Church does not fulfill its call to be the
prophetic sign pointing to the love and mercy of God it has lost sight of its
role in the earth.
The law of love is at the center of Christian
thought and faith, for it is the central value of the culture of the
kingdom. It is this law that ought
to be the guiding influence of the Christian paradigm. Anything less opens the doors to
divided loyalties and systems of religion that have little to do with Jesus,
his Gospel, or his kingdom.
Individualism vs. Community
Another tension between world culture and
kingdom culture is the view each takes of community and the individual. World culture encourages us to view
ourselves as the central figure in our lives. Others come second to our needs, our goals, our dreams and
hopes. Yet in kingdom culture the
reverse is encouraged. Others are
to be seen as more important than ourselves; their needs, their goals, their
dreams and hopes are our concern.
The community of Christ, the Church, is to be a culture of
community. We live our lives
connected to each other instead of
as separate little worlds. John 17
is perhaps the clearest expression of this kingdom value. Jesus has restored shalom through his
death and his resurrection. Through him the wholeness of relationship
that was lost has been restored, he has made it
possible for his people to become those who live in true community. Now
we can have an unbroken relationship with our heavenly Father because he has redeemed us and removed from us our sin through his
death on the cross. With the restoration of shalom
we are now able to live out the calling he places on his community to be those
who love one another. The community of Christ is empowered by his Spirit
to participate in a profound community, not a profound individualism marked by
isolation. His very desire for us expressed in John 17:20-23 is that we should
know him deeply and have incredibly deep relationships with our fellow
believers. Listen to what he says:
My prayer is not for them
alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in
you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have
sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be
one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to
complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even
as you have loved me.
These are extraordinary words for they describe a
profound depth of relationship both with God and with others. As
followers of Jesus, and being those who love him, we are called to embrace his
vision for his community. We are to be those who love God and who love
others always looking to establish and further relationships of oneness and
unity with God and each other.
Jesus expresses the mission or
purpose of being the true community of Christ in the above verses as
well. If we are a community of shalom we reveal
to the world through our love for God and one another the truth of the
Gospel. People will know that God sent his Son to us and that he loves us
because of the unique relationships we have with one another marked by love and
unity. This is evangelism in its most simple form. It is as though
Jesus is saying to us “Listen, be my kind of people and
the truth of who I am and who my Father is will be revealed.”
So we must ask ourselves are we people who live in shalom with
God and with one another? Do we have a paradigm that is filled with the
hope of true community life? Do we value what Jesus values so much?
Are we willing to love one another in the profound way that he calls us
to? We need to be willing to become those who will be participants in
establishing true community where we are. We need to realize that we as
the community of Christ are the vessels through which God has chosen to spread shalom throughout the earth once again. If we do not
embrace his vision for community then the earth suffers because we are not
fulfilling the calling he has given us.
In the end we see that the
Christian style of life is one of community. Commitment to love one another and live in unity together is
the primary and most powerful testimony the Church has been given. In this way it reveals the truth of the
Gospel reality of the risen Christ, for where true community exists it is an
undeniable revelation of Jesus Christ and the love of God for humanity. True community directly acts as a
counter force to the self-centred values of world culture.
While
we could continue to discuss numerous examples of divided loyalties and the
differences between world culture and kingdom culture (ie materialism vs.
spiritual reality, forgiveness vs. revenge, etc…) the point has already been made. Kingdom culture is a spiritual culture
that makes the community of Christ a distinct people with a distinct
culture. This culture should lead
us into a vibrant spirituality that profoundly effects the style of life that
we live as we choose loyalty to the kingdom over loyalty to the world.