The Dangers of Ecclesiastical Clannish Loyalty
Just before the Zelensky Oval Office fiasco last week, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) posted this on X.
“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,”
It is a shocking admission. While it is permissible for Senators to debate foreign policy and disagree with a sitting president, it is horrendous for a U.S. Senator to actively engage with a foreign official for the direct purpose of undermining and embarrassing the President of the United States. The President has responsibility for U.S. Diplomacy. This is about loyalty to the United States of America and not just to the office of the President. What he did was also likely a violation of the Logan Act, which usually exempts elected figures, but not when they are actively seeking to undermine official U.S. diplomacy. However, I am sure Senator Murphy feels his left-wing party loyalty justified his treasonous behavior.
The event reminded me of when I was in college and was encouraged from the Chapel platform to be “loyal to my alma mater.” I took mild offense to that. I was a “first generation” student; not like many of my classmates whose parents, and sometimes grandparents had attended. I knew that other education institutions had strayed from biblical obedience, and any loyalty to a human institution must have qualifications. Also, I was intending to pastor a church someday. I knew that loyalty to my Lord, family, and congregation, must supersede any loyalty to an educational institution.
As Christians, we often face loyalty demands from various individuals and institutions. We need to consider the ethics of loyalty from a biblical perspective.
Loyalty to the Word above all else.
We must be loyal to the Word of God above all else. Some may say that loyalty to God, and to Christ Himself should come above loyalty to the Word. However, the Word is God-breathed. We know who God is based on the Word. The Word is the message of God to us. In that sense, we do not worship the scriptures, but we do worship the God represented in the scriptures.
I do not have the space to define what loyalty to the word means in this post, but I have defined it in another article. You can find it here.
Loyalty to the Father, Christ, and the Spirit of the Bible must follow. I am a Christian before anything else—that includes family, church, nationality, citizenship, occupation, denomination, or any other group that might demand my attention and resources.
Loyalty to family.
Because of the vows made before God and man, I must be loyal to my wife and my children. For my wife, this loyalty is until death. This loyalty in marriage includes my exclusive fealty and requires me to be loyal to my wife in the biblical obligations required of any husband. Ephesians 5 says that the model for my loyalty and devotion is the love and sacrifice of Christ for the Church.
Of course, that loyalty does have limits. My loyalty to my wife (or her loyalty to me) cannot violate my loyalty to my Lord. I must obey Him first, even if she does not want or like it. We do not sin for anyone. Peter appeals to the principle of prioritized loyalty in Acts 5:29 and Abigail exemplifies it in 1 Samuel 25.
Loyalty to the Church.
Yes. This is a thing. From my perspective as a pastor, I must be loyal to the flock God has given me to shepherd. Again, my model is Jesus Christ (John 10:11-13). While my alma mater might be worthy of loyalty, that loyalty to any institution does not rise above the flock in my care. Shepherding this flock is an extension of my loyalty to Christ. He has given me this charge, therefore being loyal to this congregation is being loyal to him. A pastoral position is not a career move, it is a calling. We must not leave it just because something more attractive comes along.
Loyalty to the church is a congregational member’s responsibility as well. Christians today seem to change churches as often as they rearrange furniture. When I become a member of a church, I become part of a family–of a body. We do not abandon family unless fealty to our Lord demands it. We do no amputate body parts on a whim. Stay. Work your conflicts with others. Make sure you are not having just an emotional reaction. Make sure you have sound theological or moral reasons. Believers even need to be careful about taking promotions or career moves that move them away from the church that is their family. This is not always God’s will.
Loyalty to spiritual leaders acting faithfully in their roles.
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Hebrews 13:17
Pastors should neither be worshipped nor disrespected. They should be followed as God-ordained spiritual leaders. Teach your children to respect and obey their pastors and spiritual leaders. You do this by example. If you speak disrespectfully of others around the dinner table, so will they. Pastors have a responsibility to lead, not dictate, but church members have a responsibility to follow and respect.
Again, this loyalty has limits. If pastors sin, they should be confronted appropriately (1 Timothy 5:1 and 19).
Loyalty to other faithful believers.
Then we also do have a responsibility to be loyal to others who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10). Paul not only commanded this, he also demonstrated it in the offerings for the Church at Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8-9). This is where loyalty to an alma mater comes in. We are loyal to the household of faith, to those who are faithful to the Lord in His service, and especially to those who have invested so deeply in us. Gratitude and loyalty go hand in hand. Paul used this appeal when he urged Philemon to receive Onesimus (Philemon 17-20). There is nothing wrong with feeling an appropriate, thankful, sense of obligation to the individuals and institutions that have invested sacrificially in me and my ministry. I am deeply thankful for those who sacrificed so much to help me be effective in my service to the Lord. It is a debt that I can never repay and I will remember what they have done the rest of my life. I will not sacrifice such valuable relationships and friendships unless my Lord demands it. We need more of that.
However, appropriate loyalty must not become an unbiblical clannishness. Paul condemns this specifically in 1 Corinthians 1:10-14. Our political world has degraded into a political feud with two sides. Loyalty to the clan has superseded loyalty to the constituency or the country. Sometimes the sides do not even make sense. If Democrats are for masks, Republicans are agin’ ‘em. This is how we ended up with a sitting Senator meeting privately with a foreign president for the admitted purpose of undermining the diplomatic goals of the United States of America.
We must not do the same thing in our own familiar ecclesiastical clans.
Next week: Are there levels of loyalty?
For the audio version of this post, see here: The Dangers of Ecclesiastical Clannish Loyalty