Some cultures understand loyalty better than others do.
Some cultures identify strongly with their leaders. In some cultures, people are prepared to die for the king, the queen, or (more often) their nation. Sometimes such loyalty may be blind or misinformed, but it gives these loyalists a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves.
More relevant to the point here: by providing a sense of what it is like to be loyal, it makes it natural for believers in those cultures to express loyalty to our king Jesus in a similar way.
There are serious strengths in individualistic cultures, including appreciation for independent, critical thinking (though most people even in such cultures still fall in line with majority views, which can function as a sort of massive peer pressure). But in our individualistic cultures we often downplay loyalty. We are not loyal to kings and sometimes not even loyal to families. My own country from the start has prided itself on its hard-won independence (celebrated every July 4, which is also my birthday). “Loyalist” was not considered a positive title.
With that independent streak in our culture comes both the strengths and weaknesses of our individualism, which can also influence us as Christians. On the positive side, we should be able to stand up against peer pressure that would make us at all disloyal to Jesus; we should be willing to stand even alone for the sake of truth and what’s right. On the negative side, sometimes we tend to stand too alone, as if we don’t need the rest of the body of Christ.
When taken to its extreme conclusion, the danger in such a culture is that everyone can end up doing what is right in our own eyes—a sort of moral anarchy (Deut 12:8; Judg 17:6, 21:25). This can also make it more difficult for Christians in our culture to envision what loyalty should look like.
We need to think of elements of loyalty (to friends, ideals, family, nation, work, or whatever else) that help us understand what loyalty should look like. Also we often admire our heroes and root for them, and this can give us at least a faint appreciation for what our admiration for our Lord should be like.
But even if we cannot envision it in any other way, we need to overcome this cultural blind spot.
Loyalty to Jesus recognizes that he is our king and lord, and we should live wholly for him. He is also our hero who at great cost overcame and won salvation for us. We rejoice when he is honored, and feel pain personally when people dishonor him. We live and die for him, because our lives are wrapped up in him.
