God Doesn't Play With Mixed Allegiances

What it means to "pledge your allegiance" to Jesus

If you’re anywhere on social media, especially within the Christian social media world, you may have read posts or have heard sermon clips of pastors preaching this idea that, “our allegiance belongs solely to Jesus Christ.” Or maybe you’re hearing echoes of the 2020 political season and hearing phrases like, “we may vote for the Donkey or the Elephant, but our allegiance is to the Lamb.”

Catchy? Yes.
Cringey? Just as much.
And I’m guilty of saying that in 2020 as well.
Forgive me.

But what does that even mean? To give your allegiance to Jesus Christ? If you scour and look around the texts within your Bible, you won’t find that English word in the Scriptures other than a few spots (i.e. 1 Chronicles 12:29¹ or Isaiah 45:23²).

So where does this idea of allegiance, let alone allegiance to Jesus, come from?

I can’t speak for your pastor (if he or she has used this phrase or idea in a recent sermon) nor can I speak for the random person on the internet using this word in relation to Jesus Christ and our political season in America. But I can speak for myself as I have been navigating myself and my church plant, Kindred, through this political season.

Salvation By Allegiance Alone

Back in 2017, a theologian named Matthew Bates, wrote a book titled, “Salvation By Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and The Gospel of King Jesus.”³ And within this book, he spends an arduous amount of effort explaining what it means to have “faith” in Jesus Christ. For him, he wrote this book as the subtitle explains, to, “rethink faith, works, and the Gospel of King Jesus.” Specifically addressing the never-ending “faith and works” conversation. But for me, I found myself wrestling with the question and idea of what “faith” was in light of American Evangelicalism being questioned by people from within the Church and those outside of the Church, during the 2016 and 2020 political chaos in America.

Over the last few years, I’ve wrestled much with American Evangelicals falling prey to both political parties. As I wrote in a recent note, some American Evangelicals are in bed with the Republican Party, typically adhering to a superficial and pharasaical version of following Jesus Christ. While another brand of American Evangelicals have completely twisted and perverted the Word of God and character of Jesus to fit a more liberal and progressive political agenda, making the narrow path of following Jesus Christ into one that is wide and spacious.⁴ Clearly, the way in which we have taught about “having faith” in Jesus has left holes in our fidelity to God and His Kingdom. And only in the backdrop of heightened political years was it revealed whether people gave their entire loyalty to Christ and His Kingdom or have two-timed Jesus Christ and His Kingdom with the empires and emperors of our modern age.

At the core of it all, this one question has resounded at the center of my (albeit short) pastoral career: if American Evangelicals profess faith in Jesus Christ, how is it they can be bought out by modern day politicians?

God Wants Your Allegiance

In his book, Bates argues the Greek word for “faith”, Πίστις (“pistis”) has more meanings than our English translation to the word, “faith.” He writes —

“this range includes ideas that aren’t usually associated in our contemporary culture with belief or faith, such as reliability, confidence, assurance, fidelity, faithfulness, commitment, and pledged loyalty.”⁵

Later, he contends further that a suitable translation for “pistis” in parts of the Biblical text is with the English word “allegiance.” 

I agree.

And it is out of this pistis, or allegiance, to Jesus Christ that “captures what is most vital for salvation -- mental assent, sworn fidelity, and embodied loyalty.”⁶ “Faith” in our American Evangelical world typically prioritizes “mental assent” with very little “sworn fidelity” or “embodied loyalty” to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.

And it is to my belief that American politicians have filled these two gaping holes as it pertains to discipleship for the contemporary American Christian who has given their mental agreement that “Christ is King” and yet their “sworn fidelity” and “embodied loyalty” is lived out to an entirely different ruler. What a shame.

Yet, as Qoheleth writes in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), because we see this same behavior from the Jewish religious elites at the time of Christ’s crucifixion. In John 19:15 (CSB), history records —

“They shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Should I crucify your king?’ ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ the chief priests answered.”

Aside from not recognizing Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, the Jewish chief priests, who, to their credit followed Yahweh, ironically broke the 1st Commandment of “having no other gods” by proclaiming their loyalty to Caesar Augustus.

Today, in 2024, there are many followers of Jesus - pastors of churches, evangelists, worship leaders, and the like - who will profess to follow God, just as the chief priests did, while also living their lives as if saying, “we have no other king but Trump” or “we have no other queen but Harris.”

There is nothing new under the sun.

Costly Allegiance

My hope is that instead of the Jewish Chief Priests, we will be like the Roman jailer who aided with the imprisonment of Paul and Silas, but literally overnight, came to switch his allegiance from Caesar to Jesus Christ.

Acts 16:30-34 (CSB) says —

“[The jailer] escorted [Paul and Silas] out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, “Believe (or “pisteuon”) in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized. He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe (or “pepisteuokos”) in God with his entire household.”

If pistis truly means loyalty, fidelity, or allegiance, then for this jailer to “believe” in God was costly because it meant he changed his allegiance from Caesar Augustus to “the Lord Jesus.” Surely, a decision that could pay a hefty price (see all of 1 Peter).

And that is the point I want to make: we have lost the costliness of following Jesus in this political time. You can be both a Republican (or Trumpian) and still be a Christian without it costing you a single follicle of hair off your head - you just need to herald Trump as a demi-god and you’re safe. You can be both a Progressive and still be a Christian without it costing you a single cent - you just need to keep your mouth shut about following an “ancient and outdated book,” and profess to love all people.

But God’s Word will not be mocked; “you shall have no other gods before me.”

God doesn’t play with mixed allegiances.

His people either worshiped Him or left to worship pagan gods such as Baal or Molech; His people either worshiped King Jesus or exalted Augustus, Tiberius, or Nero; His people will either worship the presently and forever enthroned King Jesus or will exalt Trump/Harris.

God doesn’t play with mixed allegiances.

My hope is that American Christians will continue to grow disgruntled with what both presidential candidates and parties offer. That they will turn to the Scriptures and ask the Spirit of God to illuminate the Good News to them: that only Jesus Christ, the King of the Cosmos, who is currently sitting on His throne, is the only one who can sufficiently provide all solutions and remedies to our troubles and pains. That He did so on the cross and that through His resurrection, our hope can be firmly embedded and anchored in Him. And through that, we can live out a life of “sworn fidelity” to Christ and an “embodied loyalty” as ambassadors who belong to a different Kingdom than the ones here on earth.

1. ^“From the Benjaminites, the relatives of Saul: 3,000 (up to that time the majority of the Benjaminites maintained their allegiance to the house of Saul). - 1 Chronicles 12:29

2. “By myself I have sworn;
truth has gone from my mouth,
a word that will not be revoked:
Every knee will bow to me,
every tongue will swear allegiance.” - Isaiah 45:23

3.  https://matthewwbates.com/Salvation-By-Allegiance-Alone.php

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5. Bates follows up this sentiment with, “The question is, then, when a person today says, ‘I am saved by my faith in Jesus,’ what portion of the range of meaning of ‘faith’ is understood to effect salvation? Are certain portions of the legitimate meaning of ‘faith’ being unwittingly shaded out? In what capacity is Jesus being regarded as the object of ‘faith’? And what mental images surround the process of salvation?

6. In the following paragraph (page 5), Bates adds, “The opportunity to rethink the gospel, faith, and other matters pertaining to salvation stands before us.” Indeed, in such a political time as ours, “other matters” here involve mixed allegiances to items such as “God and country”, “Church and political tribe”, and “Jesus and the political candidate of your choice.”