Misplaced allegiance was a cause of divisions in the time of Paul and still is today. In the Corinthian church there were such divisions that Paul had to tick off the factions that competed with each other. “What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:12,13).
As a result there was quarrelling and competition among the factions and like any father that would ache over his quarrelling children, so our Father’s heart aches over factions in the body. Misplaced allegiance shows symptoms such as the following:
-you distinguish and identify yourself from others by the name of a human leader.
-you compare those of your group with other groups and regard your group better.
-you regard the human leader’s teachings (rather than the overall teachings of scriptures) as the benchmark against which you evaluate other teachings.
-you give an allegiance to the human leader above your allegiance to Christ.
-you depend and put your trust in the human leader more than in Christ.
The solution is that in every church we give Christ the pre-eminence and centrality in our allegiance, our mission and our message. Filled with gratitude for the grace we have experienced, we give Him our heart’s full loyalty. We focus on the mission of preaching the gospel and keep our message focused on Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 1,2).
Apt Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ5R08xDC6c&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Hi Ps Kenny, it’s been a while since I last drop by. missed out on predicting last season’s EPL on ur blog. haha.
on this post about division in a church, I agree with you that misplaced allegiance is pretty much the source of division in church. Not just in different factions, but also in all things.
When we lose sight of our allegiance in Christ, we can be pretty sure that there will be fights for power, control & status in the church. And with these also comes the claim to certain knowledge (either all-knowing or “God spoke to me only”), certain calling (“I’m called to be XYZ”) and certain rights (“I’m a XYZ, you better submit to me”). Knowledge, calling and rights are not bad stuff, but will be abused when allegiance is misplaced. Pretty much like what the Corinthian church faced.
for those sg Christians “burnt” by churches and the experiences of problems and divisions as they move from church to church, this book is at least of comfort to them that they are not alone, and such problems were already happening in the early church, let alone us now.
Nice to hear from you Jason. As you know things are rather “if-ish” in Arsenal our favourite team.
Yeah , it is. The “division” in Arsenal is a different kind – important parts do not want to stay. So it wont be very healthy for a while (that’s at least 7 years without a trophy)