Divided Loyalties

Introduction

Divided loyalty. Maybe we have heard the phrase. There are times when divided loyalties occur. Children whose parents divorce often feel divided in their loyalty. Loving both parents they have a hard time with being loyal to both without hurting the other. In business the possibility of divided loyalty exists. We work for the company that pays us but yet we are there to help the customer who may need our help in getting what is right but to do so hurts the company. Example of selling shoes as a teenager. In our country divided loyalties are clearly seen in politics. Democrats and Republicans both speak of being loyal to America only then to support the party line out of loyalty. Doing what is best for party seems to be more important than what is best for the country. This is one of the many reasons why we do not place our faith in politics.

Divided loyalties happen spiritually as well. Many times it happens without any recognition on our part. At times we still believe that we are loyal to God while our actions and thoughts move us away from him. It is this same theme that James deals with in our text. Through a series of exaggerated yet direct proposals James insists that his readers take a look at their loyalties and decide if they are truly loyal to God. Today we will be given an opportunity to once again decide where our loyalty lies. Our songs will allow us to verbally and musically proclaim our loyalty to God. Let’s allow today to be a day to confirm our allegiance to God.

Reality of Living

I was a kid dreaming of all the good things. Since we rarely had ice cream, the good life would include that for sure. Because we didn’t have air conditioning until I was 12, that too had to be part of the good life. Of course, my friends would be in the good life. A bigger house would be there. I didn’t like sharing a very small bedroom with my brother all the time. In general my dream of my adult life would be very easy and very predictable. As a kid you didn’t think of paying for all those things, you just wanted them to be there so that life would be easier and in many ways better. Maybe we are still dreaming that way. Whatever we envision will make life better and easier and more predictable. Maybe we think of a life that gives us more freedom financially or a life that gives us more time for doing things we can only dream of doing whether it is travel or working in a garden or doing much of nothing. Whatever the vision it probably doesn’t include the idea of life being harder or includes a dream of more suffering.

What do you dream of spiritually? Do you have a spiritual dream? Do you envision your spiritual life being different? Better? More aligned with God?

James is very direct in this text just as he has been throughout his writing. He knows his own life and he sees how people’s current lives mirror his own. He was Jesus’ brother. When he was younger, James thought that Jesus had lost touch with reality so did his mother who knew he came from God (Mark 3:21). He took seeing Jesus alive after the resurrection to convince him that he was the one out of touch with reality.

Using exaggeration and a very direct approach James deals with what he is seeing. There are external conflicts driven by internal disloyalty. People are not getting along because their motives are messed up. People want things that will make life easier and better but they are willing to damage others to get that. They have lost touch with reality. They are focused on what is better for them than on what is best for God’s way. As James writes in verse 4, they are divided in their loyalty. Just as a spouse decides to flirt with someone who is not their spouse, their loyalty is divided. James says you can’t decide if you want to follow the way of the world or follow God. As he calls them in verse 8, they are double-minded. He used the same word in 1:8. You can’t do both he says.

This word double-minded is found only here in James. It is a fascinating word. It is a combination word. The main root word means “life or breath or soul.” In our English it would by spelled psyche. It is the word we use to describe the mind. The internal part of a person. It would spiritually align with the soul and it is the word that we use to generate the word psychology.

The other word is a simple word that means “twice or two times.” For those who are in the mental health field and there are several of us in this audience this word in English would be “two minds or two souls.” In the field of psychology we use the word psychosis to describe a person who has lost touch with reality.

James is using a word which in his day meant that a person with dual loyalties really did not know which way to go. At times that person would want to follow the world and at times follow God. In many ways James is telling us as readers that there is only one reality and it is found in following God.

Call to Reality

His solution. Submit yourself to God. Jesus put it this way “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” There is to be no division. We are to be undivided in our loyalty to Jesus. There is to be a full commitment to God. Submission is to voluntarily yield yourself to God but at the some time we are to actively resist Satan’s overtures to follow the thinking of the world. By active resistence, Satan will flee. James is not making an exhaustive treatise about Satan and how he works. But James is absolutely clear, the person with divided loyalties has a hard time saying “no” to Satan and the result is the person often feels under attack and double minded. As long as we are holding out in our heart a desire to follow the thinking of the world, the more we will feel torn and divided. That is Satan.

Second, in verse 8, James says we need to repent. There needs to be a change of heart. The symbol of washing one’s hands serves to remind us that divided loyalties leaves us tainted. We need to change our hearts. This repentance means that we are committing ourselves to God and actively leaving the world’s ways behind. Repentance is done once and then is remembered and renewed regularly. Such repentance in verse 9 produces new attitudes. While this is certainly negative language, James probably has in mind the words of his brother in Luke 6:24-26: But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” This repentance leads us to understand that this life is about God and not our ease.

Finally, James says we are to humble ourselves and let God lift us up. It isn’t about winning now; it is about winning with God. It is about being in touch with the reality that this is not all there is. We work so hard to get somewhere in this life only to discover that this life cannot ultimately give us what we want—peace, real life, joy, a life with God. Invitation.

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