Thursday, December 16, 2010

Divided Loyalty

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24, NKJV).

There is an ancient corporate leadership principle which was taught to fledgling middle-management candidates in the last century that focused on the concept of "span of control". The premise was that if a single individual had either too many subordinates, or specialized responsibilities that were too diverse, then that person could not effectively lead those who reported to him, or her, or follow directives from above. The individual's focus would be too divided or stretched and the end result would be that nothing significant would be accomplished.

In other words, someone appointed to oversee both the hard-copy file area, and the Regulatory Compliance Section was bound to be ineffective in one or the other area of responsibility. This same concept is expressed interpersonally as "divided loyalty". I've even seen it lived out in dogs who were either purposely or inadvertently triangulated between two masters. Eventually, for sanity's sake, a choice is made, and one side or the other loses focus, or devotion, or significance. Hence, Jesus said long ago that "No one can serve two masters…".
Divided loyalties are guaranteed to be fruitless. Either you will be viewed as only luke-warm toward both factions, and thus dismissed as uncommitted, or you'll be labeled flat out as a traitor to the side that gets the short shift. Most tragically, by trying to balance the competing demands of each side, you gain neither's trust or affection and are cast aside by both and left out in the cold. In the end, even if you are able to maintain a facade of commitment, inside you will  either "…hate the one and love the other…"  or else you will "…be loyal to the one and despise the other." And after a while, nobody involved in the equation stays fooled for long, and the truth bubbles out.

Jesus ends this instruction in most blatant terms by bringing it down to the two things in a person's life that are typically opposed to each other: the spiritual versus the material. He couches it in the concrete conclusion that no one can simultaneously serve "God and mammon [personal wealth]." The word translated serve in this passage is interesting. It means bondservant or slave. The root is to yield obedience to or give one's self up to.
Human beings are designed by God to serve and worship. It's written in our hearts, minds and genome. You WILL serve something or someone, or you will simply fade away into despondent death or march boldly into suicide. Both God and the pursuit of personal wealth take complete submission to pursue fully. And as you cannot hope to obtain all the wealth possible without full bore commitment of all that you are, neither can you reap the temporal and eternal benefits of a relationship with God without the same fervent self-investment. Jesus is saying that it is impossible to do both. Each one of us needs to choose whom we will serve. Straddling the fence won't work, nor will feigned devotion. Neither  can be sustained for long.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that He is saying that you cannot be materially blessed while being a devoted slave of Christ. It happens. Not always, but sometimes. And when it does the devotee knows the source of blessing and cannot, nor would want to, take personal credit for it. But regardless of what occurs in this life, the rewards reaped in the next are eternal and incomprehensibly priceless. Nothing can possibly compare to the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord - eternal life in God's magnificent Presence.

What Jesus IS saying though, is that if you choose to be enslaved by something other than God, be it wealth or any other temporary benefit that the world offers, you will end up hating the Lord. It really doesn't matter what you devote yourself to if it isn't God Himself, who is "your exceedingly great reward" . Anything else is of the flesh, and reaps death and corruption. That is why the Lord will say later on in this same sermon, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13, 14, NKJV).
The way to life isn't difficult because it's hard to locate, but because of what you have to leave behind - reliance on yourself.

This was made crystal clear to me by my wife when we first got saved. Prior to that we had been a two-income upwardly mobile household devoted to material acquisition and comfort at the expense of virtually everything else. Jesus changed that, and rather quickly, when it became obvious to both of us that He was leading her to stop working to remain home and homeschool our precious children, and convicting me that it was my solemn privilege and responsibility to provide for my family. On paper, a single income wasn't going to work, but with His strength and empowerment we took that step of faith anyway, and He has provided for us ever since.

At first, though, it was tough, and being unschooled and inexperienced in the ways of the Lord, I felt anxious that I was not making enough to tithe what I thought was the minimum amount. I will never forget what she said to me when I shared that fear with her.

"Honey, you have nothing to worry about. You have given Him something far more priceless; all of you. And by simply obeying, you are providing for me and your daughters, not just in this life, but forever."

Those words sunk deeply into my heart and lifted an unbearable burden from my shoulders. My tears came unbidden and I wept out of relief and inexpressible gratitude that I served such a Lord who was so good and so kind, and who showered me with such unmerited favor as to give me Himself.

He has enabled me to love Him with undivided loyalty, and in doing so I have come to see the world, and the things of the world, as despicable in comparison to the One who gave Himself that I might live.