Who Will It Be?

“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” ~Joshua 24:14-15

We are in a battle.  We are being warred over and we are, like it or not, to be engaged in the war.  But in order to do that, we have to choose a side.

As Christians, we owe our loyalty to Christ.  But the question is whether that is merely a philosophical loyalty or a loyalty proclaimed by our actions.  You see, I once heard someone say that if the devil can’t have our soul, he will try to steal our witness. 

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” ~1 Peter 5:8

Who do your actions say you are serving?  God?  Yourself?  The devil?

“…for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” ~2 Peter 2:19

It is your choice.  But here’s what God has to say:

“For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore, DO NOT LET SIN REIGN in your mortal body that you obey its lusts, and DO NOT GO ON PRESENTING the members of YOUR BODY AS INSTRUMENTS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not be master over you…” ~Romans 6:10-14

Now, it’s easy to give philosophical assent to something.  To mentally subscribe to a cause, yet live in a way that shows that our loyalty, in all practicality, lies elsewhere.

So I ask you: where do your actions say your loyalty lies?  Do they show a complete loyalty to Christ or to your own desires or habits?

Yes, habits.  A habit can be a master.  Remember, you are a slave, giving your loyalty, to whatever you allow to overcome you.  And habits are perhaps the most dangerous of potential masters because we serve them unconsciously.

In terms of the devil’s strategies, doing his best to blind us to sinful habits seems to be effective.  As long as we are serving something other than Christ, he is happy.  As Christians, we are called to be God’s bondservants.  But living in bondage to a sinful habit makes us slaves to sin once again.

What is to be done?

“Submit therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.” ~James 4:7-8

Resist.  I wish it was easier.  Resistance is hard, partly because it is on-going.  It’s not a “do-it-once-and-be-done” kind of thing.  But the first step in resistance is to realize that there is someone and something that needs to be resisted.  We need to take a close look at our own lives and see where we are living with misplaced loyalty, what, besides Christ, we are serving.  It might be conscious sin or it might be unconscious habits. 

The next step is to make a choice.  These other loyalties need to go.  Make a conscious choice to serve God in whatever area of life you find is enslaved to sin.  As the Israelites started a new life in Canaan, Joshua issued a challenge.  The people had recently left an official bondage and slavery in Egypt.  Now they faced a new issue. Another potential slavery.  Joshua realized this.  He told them they had to choose who they would serve – God or the false gods of the nations around them.

Now, even when we aren’t fully serving Christ, we don’t usually think of ourselves as serving the gods of the people around us.  But think about it.  If the people around you, who have not declared an allegiance to Christ, are serving their own sinful desires and habits and are putting those things first in their lives, those things have, in a sense become their gods.  And if you are serving those same things, you are essentially serving the gods of the people around you.

So I issue Joshua’s challenge to you:  Choose today who you will serve.  Your choices are the God who sacrificed Himself to redeem you or, if you aren’t willing to fully become His servant, the sinful desires and habits of those around you.

You will serve someone.  Now who will it be?

“…for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” ~2 Peter 2:19

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But resist him, firm in your faith…” ~1 Peter 5:8-9a