Loyalty

It's funny sometimes how God gets me thinking.

I'm playing a computer game with my sons right now that has strong themes of loyalty. You can choose to take part in a rebellion, presented as liberating the people; you can support the existing government. You can join groups based on your race, or your profession, or your religion. 

This is a secular game set in an alternate world with strong Roman Empire overtones, so all of the religions are pagan, and every clique uses situational ethics. Bad things you do to your enemies are OK, if they result in good things for your friends. 

But what has me thinking is this idea of loyalty. When interests conflict, how do you choose what's right? Life is frequently like that, so it's a question that's been stuck in my mind.

So this morning, the very first sentence I read in Peter is this: "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord." (1 Peter 3:15).

Conflicting loyalties and situational ethics can bog us down when we forget where our true loyalty lies. When we're trying to avoid stressful confrontations, or disappointing others, or making them dislike us, or emotional or physical pain, all those situations in life are hard to figure out.

But our Lord has a pretty simple set of rules. With Him, it usually isn't hard to figure out what's right, so much as it is to convince ourselves that's what we're really going to do.

Loyalty to Christ means that earthly wealth, position, or relationships are secondary to heavenly ones. We want only as much as we need to live obediently; the rest we give away. Positions of power are of little use; work in soup kitchens becomes more attractive. And the relationship that gets clear priority over every other one is our relationship with God.

It's easy to see in the end where most people's loyalties are. Is it obvious to the world which Lord I serve?