To whom do you owe allegiance? Where do your loyalties lie? For a lot of Christians, I genuinely wonder about this question because I can’t tell whether they are loyal to Jesus or something else entirely. And I’m not necessarily referring to sin here, though sin can be something you choose to be your master over Christ.

Every day we face decisions that indicate to whom we give glory as our master, and far too often, we try to split our loyalties to give a little glory to Jesus, a little glory to ourselves, a little to our state, our country, our sin.

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot recently, and the idea for this little lesson was brought to mind again thanks to two things. The first is an image with a quote that’s going around the Internet right now relating to politics that says, “Some of y’all are too busy being Republican or Democrat to notice you stopped being decent a long time ago.” The second is the song “20:17 (Raise the Banner),” by Audio Adrenaline.

The saddest part about that quote is that it is disturbingly and apparently true, especially of Christians. There are so many Christians I’ve heard from who are trying to corrupt the Word of God to make it match their politics—on every side of every issue. There are “Christians” who put more of their identity in being Republican or Democrat than they do being a follower of Christ. And they’ve stopped being decent human beings and they’ve stopped being Christian. Their master is no longer Christ; it’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or Mike Pence or George Bush or whoever else they happen to like in the political spectrum.

Now, I’m not going any farther into politics than this: stop that. Stop following any of those people like they’re your master. Did any of them save you? Do any of them rule your life because they created it? No. So you’d better stop serving them as if they did what Christ did. I’m saying that so clear cut because it is crystal clear in the Bible.

Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and money.” And you can replace money with literally anything else: sex, career, politics, games, books, sports, your country. It’s that simple: if you choose to serve God, you cannot serve anything else lest you tell God you despise Him.

Now, before I go farther, I need to clarify so no one will jump on my case thinking I’ve said something I didn’t. What I’m saying here does not mean you are exempt from following the rules of the government you live under, or that you can’t like a politician or the country you live in, or that you can’t/shouldn’t serve in the military. All I’m saying is that you cannot make them an idol. You cannot make them so important in your life that you end up following and serving them with fervor. That position belongs solely to God. That glory belongs solely to God. See, your master is the one to whom you give glory

The Church is a nation without borders temporarily encapsulated by Earth. Instead of picturing ourselves as Americans, Europeans, Australians, Germans, Canadians, etc. it’s time we remember that we are Christians living in America, Europe, Australia, Germany, Canada, etc. with a Visa. Our home here is temporary; as soon as we are done with our work, we will return to be with our Lord, Jesus, in our own place in His house.

While you’re here, your job is to give Him glory so that the inhabitants of the nations you temporarily live in say, “I like this Lord you serve; can I move to where you live?” And that’s where the Audio Adrenaline song comes in.

In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat was set to lead the inhabitants of Jerusalem out to battle an opposing force much stronger than their own army. He prayed about what he should do, and the Lord told him to face them even though they were weaker. When it came time to do battle, Jehoshaphat had his warriors lined up and ready to fight, but God ordered singers to be sent in front of the warriors to shout praises as they marched.

Jehoshaphat had two choices: he could choose to ignore God and march out with his warriors in front to gain glory for himself, his people, and Jerusalem, or he could listen to God and give Him the glory for routing the opposing army and securing the victory.

Let’s think of it like some of the song lyrics:

Raise the banner high march with I and I
Lift your voices up loud and high
Strength and unity, faith and victory
Let the battle rage on we cry

In medieval times, major lords had minor lords who swore allegiance to them, called vassals, but for the sake of my metaphor, we’ll call them “bannermen.” I’m stealing a fantasy term here, but rest assured the concept existed in medieval reality. One of the ways to tell who served who in battle was to see the banners each army marched under. Each lord had someone in his troops carry a banner that depicted his house in some way that was easily identifiable to friend and foe alike. Those troops would sometimes rally together under a central banner, the lord to whom their individual lords owed allegiance. Then, each house was seen as inconsequential because all the armies would be directed by the major lord. Instead of multiple separate armies, they would become one massive army under a single banner.

See, like those troops, we march around with a banner held over our heads. The key is to make sure we’re holding up the right one or else our allegiance comes into question. If we walk around with our own house banner over our heads, we take the glory that belongs to our Lord for ourselves. If we walk around with our country’s banner over our heads, we take the glory that belongs to our Lord for His enemy. And rest assured that the things that do not explicitly state they are with God are against Him (Matthew 12:30). But if we accomplish all that we do with God’s banner over our heads held high, He receives the glory due to Him.

So, don’t forget that you owe your ultimate allegiance to God, not your county, not your high school or college, not your state, not your country, and not your political leaders. But to God and God alone.