The Way of the Lord is not a life lived according to the prevailing worldview of the 21st Century; a worldview grounded in post-enlightenment political correctness with its heavy emphasis on subjectivity, moral relativity and the primacy of the rights of the individual above nearly everything else. “Have it your way!” is not the battle cry of the Kingdom of God.
The Way of the Lord is a reset, a return to the way things were created to be in the first place. Before the fall, before sin, before our relationship and intimacy with God was broken by lies and accusations, fear and distrust, the Bible described a different state of affairs. God was God, and we weren’t. He was fully in charge even though his plan was to delegate to people the authority and responsibility for leading and managing this whole planet.
But here’s the funny thing about delegated authority – while its real authority with real power and real responsibility, nevertheless it is dependent and subservient to the one whose authority has been delegated.
There is ONE non-negotiable foundation for the Way of the Lord; we each must renounce and repudiate every other false claimant for the role God alone is qualified to play in our lives. He must be our absolute sovereign Lord and Master. Switching our allegiance to any other “lord,” no matter how subtle or culturally acceptable it may seem, is a substitution of true life for empty promises and dehumanization.
The Key Questions we have to answer:
- Who is at the center of my life?
- Who is really in charge?
- To whom or to whose cause am I really committed?
The Underlying Principle at work: it really is the case that you can only serve one master, but whomever you serve is your master.
Woven through the Bible is the idea, the call, the requirement that people must deal with this issue of One Allegiance. One example is the compelling passage in Isaiah 45 below (emphasis is mine).
[14] Thus says the LORD: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.’”
[15] Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
[16] All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together.
[17] But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.
[18] For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other.
[19] I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.
[20] “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
[21] Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
[22] “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
[23] By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’
(Isaiah 45:14-23 ESV)
If a single-minded, whole-hearted, sole allegiance to God is not clear in your mind and heart then nothing else is going to work. I’ve known too many people whose lives have fallen apart only to find that their failure of nerve, of faith, of will, or of morality was traceable back to the failure to get this settled. You can’t serve God and something else. A single allegiance to God is how we were designed to operate; that’s where we find our greatest fulfillment in life, purpose and power. It may seem counter intuitive, but its true – go it alone and you end up with less than life, not more.
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