Thursday, November 8, 2012

Loyalty to Christ


You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere human beings? What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe...-1 Corinthians 3:3-5 (NIV) 

Do not go beyond what is written. Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us against the other. -1 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV)

It's hard not to read this text from 1 Corinthians without thinking about the presidential election and the way people are responding to the results. Reading and hearing what many people are saying suggests that there is indeed much quarreling among us. On one side, we have the Obama followers. On the other side, we have the Romney followers. Roughly 50% of those who voted on Tuesday placed their hope in the party of the donkey and roughly 48% placed their hope in the party of the elephant. It sure seems like people are puffed up about the candidate they follow. I'm saddened that many on the winning side appear to be "rubbing it in" and many on the losing side have, what at least one person described as, "sour grapes."

One of the study notes in my Life Application Bible points out how easy it is for people to become attached to a leader; when someone has helped us, it's natural to feel loyalty. But Paul warns against such pride in our leaders that then leads to division, slander, strife, or broken relationships. Paul admonishes that our deepest loyalty should be to Christ.

As I posted on Facebook Tuesday (and it's not an original quote), our hope does not come from a donkey (Democrats) or an elephant (Republicans). Our hope comes from a Lamb (Jesus). 

The election is over. What's done is done. If our country has any hope, it will be when we move beyond loyalty to a candidate or a party and when we pledge our ultimate loyalty to Jesus Christ. May God grant you the grace to do to that today.



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If you're interested in reading through the Bible in a year, tomorrow's readings are Job 35-36 and 1 Corinthians 7-8. 

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