The Bible word is devotion, the human word is loyalty. The former stands for consecration, of a gift that cannot be reclaimed; the latter refers to fidelity, with the suggestion of trying circumstances. God is “faithful”, but “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”; his quality of mercy stands for covenant-keeping.
Loyalty is greatly prized by men. David was the “beloved captain” who in his youth attracted to himself a band of loyal followers. He taught them loyalty by his own example of loyalty to a king who sought his life out of motives of jealousy. But as David aged and his empire expanded their loyalty faded, some of his truest friends turned against him and his enemies transferred their loyalties ostensibly to the wider field of national interest, but in reality to their selfish ambitions and in less than two generations the empire of David had been reduced to a permanently divided kingdom. Human loyalties are hard to maintain because of the human factors that weaken them.
The modern world is finding much the same sort of limitation to its loyalties. Formerly fixed within the limits of national interest, they have been altered by new conditions which have developed wider conceptions of one-worldness, of international interdependence, of socialist ideologies, and the rest; and loyalties have been transferred to wider aspects of human wellbeing. Presumably this development would be good were it not that in the confusion the new loyalties tend to break down under the claims of individual ambitions and powerlust.
We must ask ourselves whether the ecclesia is prone to the same fluctuations. Strictly speaking it should not be because basically the ecclesia is the foundation and pillar upon which the truth of God rests, and is the contemporary instrument and agent of the kingdom of God until such time as all things in Christ are gathered into one. Yet sometimes, we have to concede, loyalties have been changed to suit personal convictions about either doctrine or conduct. Such is human frailty, and concerning it Paul recites to Timothy the hymn of the day:
If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: If we deny him, he also will deny us:
If we believe not, he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself;
The requirements of loyalty are: A Great Cause; A True Leadership; An Intense Idealism. These conditions are to be found only in Christ Jesus. The great cause is the salvation of the world, which never diminishes: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
The intense idealism is reflected in the fact that by the suffering of death for every man he was crowned with glory and honour and immortality. The true leadership is seen in that “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end”.
These three virtues must be brought to bear upon the ecclesia as it struggles against the incessant stream of difficult human relationships and selfish actions, weaknesses which are so widely and evenly distributed among all its members that dictatorial repressions must give way to forbearance wisely directed to removing the offences. What a demanding thing is our loyalty in response to God’s faithfulness!
The rules of such a life are simple in the extreme and equally direct in their application. They are comprehended in the relatively few Commandments of Christ which he summed up in the one word, love. Jesus admonished his followers, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; because a servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: But I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you”.
It is at this point that loyalty to the ecclesia is brought up to the stature of devotion, because the friends of Christ Jesus are called to a consecration which must match the devotion of Jesus to God.
The Parables of Jesus – (Part 6) – The Wedding Banquet