-

 

Loyalty in Marks of the Christian

Message for Sunday  Romans 8; Parable Matthew 13:44..

"Pray as though everything depended on God.
Work as though everything depended on you."
— St. Augustine

Today we continue thinking about the six marks of the Christian: " Loyalty, Courage, Patience, Humility, Freedom & Generosity" The quote above reminds us that being a Christian depends on God's call. Romans 8 says that in the Epistle lesson. God was loyal to us before we believed. We have been called to know Him. Salvation is of the LORD.

God is loyal to us when we were in unbelief. Romans 4: 11 tells us that Abraham was reckoned as righteous when he was in uncircumcision. 4:10 Romans 8 talks about a calling through God's predestination. Whatever we think that says we know it is clearly teaching that God gives us eternal life. He foreknew that He would call us . We say this is God's work on our behalf even before we believed through the call of the Holy Spirit to know and love His Son Jesus Christ. John 3 tells us we must be born of water and of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God and that is His action to call us through His Holy Spirit. We cannot birth ourselves. We must be born again, or as we know it says in the Greek, be born from above.

We should rejoice in this truth. God is loyal to us before we were loyal to Him, but He now calls us to be loyal to Him. That is another mark of the Christian according to our book, Six Marks of a Christian by Shatford. " The mark of loyalty was found upon the personality of Jesus and upon the life of Paul, and must be upon the life of everyone who would follow Him as a disciple." God is working all things for those who love God for good. Romans 8:28 " And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."

Are we loyal to our Lord? We said earlier we bear in our bodies as did ST Paul the marks of the Lord Jesus. Galatians 6: 17 The opposite of loyalty is lawlessness. Our age is characterized by that. Let me quote what Canon Shatford, Rector of ST James in Montreal, said is book written in 1925:" I do not think there ever was a time when lawlessness was so marked as it is at this present time. All authority seems to have gone by the board....loyalty in the home, loyalty of citizens to the laws?.."

God had been loyal to us. WE must loyal even in the little things. Luke 16:10 “ He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much….” “ Take care of these little things, and then you need never fear the great emergency, because, having been in the habit and custom of loyalty all through your life, you will be aware when the great temptation comes.” Canon Shatford

I think we assume that we know about other people. The other day I heard from the person I would never expect ,” Well this is not happening ...so we can see that God will work it out, and we were not supposed to do this thing now…” I was quite amazed at the statement. It made me realize that I need to trust God when I am disappointed at others or in situations. Did we not cover that last week in our study on patience?” Patience is difficult under a sense of disappointment…” Shatford

Our Epistle lesson makes us think, “ If God is for us, who can be against us?” 8:31
Hitler imprisoned a German pastor, Martin Niemoeller, for eight years. He spent some time in prisons and concentration camps, including Dachau. Hitler realised that if Niemoeller, a First World War hero, could be persuaded to join his cause then much opposition would collapse, so he sent a former friend of Niemoeller to visit him, a friend who now supported the Nazis. Seeing Niemoeller in his cell, the one time friend is reported as saying, "Martin, Martin! Why are you here?" To which he received from Niemoeller the response, "My friend! Why are you not here?"

Today we are encouraged that God is loyal to us. We know that from the Scriptures. The real question today is that knowing that, “ Are we loyal to Him?” We are tested and tempted to deny Him in so many ways, and this as we said starts with the little customs and habits we practice. “ The first mark, the mark of loyalty----loyalty in little things, loyalty in inward things, loyalty in the home, loyalty in the church, loyalty in the state, loyalty in the business. Wherever you may be, let this be manifested in your life, and then you will be a worthy disciple of Jesus Christ.”- Shatford

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balancing our Romans 5 Justification with holiness in the life Romans 6

-
  A Balance to Justification Romans 6     Last week we discussed the area of grace in the operation of our salvation.  We saw in Romans 5:1-8 that salvation, we call it justification is by faith through the un-merited grace of the Eternal Trinity. Without peace with God we have no eternal life.  That peace with God and the person of Christ is there as we develop relationships with other Christians in the Church. This is what was so important. "That is to say, in the Christian community we do not relate to one another “immediate[ly],” we relate to one another mediately – through the “mediation of Christ.” For that reason, we love others not directly, but for Christ’s sake."  Article on Life Together by Bonhoeffer.    We said in summary we are not seeking a rules-based Christianity necessarily,  but have grace to access to God through His life-changing Gospel of the good news, that Christ died for the ungodly, and we were all that before Christ came to us.  We did not come to H
Read more

Walk worthily Philippians 1:27

-
  Worthily   Philippians 1:27 Some of my favorite vs are in the Philippians letter.  1:6, "  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" 1:21 " For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Ch 2 talks about unity through humility and being like Christ, doing things with the mind of Christ.Ch 3 is great too about our citizenship being in heaven and awaiting the Savior from heaven, Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly bodies at the Resurrection Ch 4 may be the best with not being anxious and to cast all our care upon Him and not being anxious.  But in vs 27 of ch 1 we are exhorted to " walk worthily of the gospel of Christ"    As a noun, axiom refers to a statement that is accepted as true and serves as the basis for argument or inference. It can also mean an established rule, principle, or self-evident truth.  Walk worthily of the Gospel of Christ, v. 27 recognized as
Read more

The Vine and the Branches John 15

-
  John 15.  The Vine and the Branches   This is obviously a well-known part of the teaching of Jesus.  Every time I come to it, I gain something new from it.  It makes sense because Israel too was known as a vine.  Unfortunately Israel did not always behave in the way God required of them.  " He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." Is 5:2  If we are part of the vine and the branches we too know this all too well. Our intentions may be pure but somehow we act in such a way that we do not experience God's peace.  It usually has something to do with us, not God, for His calling and purposes are always good. 1.  God calls us as He did with the people of Israel.  They did not follow before His call of them individually and as a people.  We too are called to Him .  Vs 16 " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chose you and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit." We cannot be proud or boastful for we know before we
Read more