Text: Mark 8:34
By: Marvis Kaine
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The goal of every Christian is to make eternity. To achieve this goal, it requires loyalty from every individual believer. Loyalty they say is expensive and Christ has paid the price to earn every believer’s loyalty.
Loyalty is so underrated that you see people mouthing it “your boy is loyal” “your boy is loyal sir” and so on. Loyalty is a life style and you don’t mouth it. It is evident in your character and conduct.
Loyalty simply means the state of being loyal. That is, faithfulness to commitment or obligation. For believers it means our entire being (everything about you) is thoroughly committed to Christ as he has required of believers in Mark 8:34–
When he had called the people together to Himself, with His Disciples also, he said to them,
Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Loyalty is all about self-denial and for believers to attain eternity, he or she must deny himself and carry his cross to the very end.
God is the true definition of loyalty. The scripture declare that He is God and He is Himself is faithful and as such wants His people to be Faithful– Duet 7:9;
Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep his commandments.
And that nothing can separate us from His Love not even the pandemic COVID- 19. Romans 8:35-39.
Nor can our faithlessness stop Him from being faithful. 2Tim 2:13;
“If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself”
His love never ends and we are still alive because it is new every day. Lamentation 3:22- 23;
22”Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His Compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Total devotion and commitment to God and his word is required of every believer of Christ if he or she wants to make it to eternity with Christ. Disloyalty is as a result of Sin and the scripture gave us examples of many that followed other gods and the resultant consequence that followed. False doctrine was a major course of worry to Apostle Paul because of the Church at Corinth giving heed to unsound doctrine.
The scripture also is not silent of persons that were loyal to God in the time past and one of such person is in person of King Asa. He was recorded in the scripture as one who was loyal to God during His reign. That account is recorded in I Kings 15:11-14
Asa did what was right in the eyes of Lord, as did his father David. 12 and he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idoks that his fathers had made. Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the brook of Kidron, but the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the Lord all his days.
Same is said of Hezekaiah that he was loyal to God in II Kings 18:3&5
Loyalty was put to action in person of Ruth. She displayed unquestionable loyalty by sticking to mother in-law and hence she declared Ruth 1:16;
“Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. And her loyalty led her to become an ancestress of Christ.
King David understood the importance of loyalty to God and hence he made a powerful request to God to give his son Solomon a loyal heart and unfortunately at old age Solomon went after other gods- I Chronicles 29:19.
Christ cautioned His followers that Loving God is more than offering burnt scarifies- Mk 2:31. He went on to re-emphasize the on loyalty to God when the Pharisees ask Him which is the greatest commandment – Matt. 22:34-36
Loyalty is not a quality a believer tells others he possess. It is a life style that believers portray and people sees it in their conduct and character. Every believer must put on the whole armor of God in order to attain the requirement of eternity that is loyalty- Eph 6:11-17 and by so doing the Christians will be able to stand against all the wiles, tricks of the devil and ones devotion to God cannot be question.
Apostle Paul in his letter to the brethren at Colossae, admonished believers to put the character of mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another as Christ forgave but above all things put on love, which is the bond of perfection and be thankful- Colossian 3:12-17.
By Putting on the above mention character, a loyal Christian can be said to be one that exhibits the following qualities to attain the mark of eternity.
By Obeying God’s Word– I John 3:24; now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the spirit whom He has given us.
Be Sincere– a loyal Christian is one that is sincere in his or her devotion and her commitment to God, his obligation or God’s given task to the very end- II Cor 2:17; “for we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ cf I Pet. 1:22, I Cor 4:12, Jeremiah 42:5
Be Ready to Serve– Christians prove their loyalty to Christ in noble services to God and humanity as written by Elisha A. Hoffman in Hymn 589, stanza three. By so doing you prove your faith in God and believers be readily available to work-James 2:18;
Be Humble –Believers are at all times, circumstances expected to be humble as Christ Himself serve with all lowliness of mind. Apostle Paul proves his loyal even in the mist of perils –Acts 20:19; serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by plotting of the Jews. Eph 4:3, I Peter 3:8, matt 11:29, Jm 4:6 Col 3:2
Loyalty is shown in our commitment to Jesus Christ and His gospel. It is the acknowledgement that Christ is our sole source of authority and salvation. – Mark 8:35, Romans 1:16.
Our devotion and commitment should reflect the attitude of peter who said “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, He should do it with the strength God gives, so that in all things God may be praise through Christ- I Peter 4:11.
Conclusion
Dearly beloved it is our duty to be loyal to the people that God has placed in our lives and to be loyal to each other – Proverbs 18:24, John 15:13.
Christian loyal is one that love the way Christ loves us- John 13:34-35. Christians are to prove their loyalty to God even in time of adversity- Proverbs 17:17.
The reward for Christian loyalty, is eternity with Christ. Revelation 2:25-26
As we press toward the mark of eternity, may the good Lord help us to remain loyal to Him till the very end in Christ name Amen!
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