Well, when do we unfollow our Christian leaders?

When does our loyalty to God override our loyalty to a certain church?

We get the question from a listener named Peggy.

Hello, Pastor John.

I have a burning question for you to answer.

As Christians, do we pledge our loyalty to church or to God and when and how should that

line be drawn?

The way I answer Peggy will depend on what she is referring to when she says loyalty

to church.

Does she mean loyalty to the people of God as a whole?

Namely the church universal, consisting of all the children of God who are ever born

again through the Holy Spirit, through the gospel, or does she mean one particular local

expression of that church?

She may not even be thinking of that distinction, but it's an important one, so I'm going to

answer her at both levels.

So first, church universal and then specific church.

Three different witnesses in the New Testament, Paul and John and Peter, three different

witnesses tell us that to be united to God in Christ is to be united in principle and

in love to the people of God.

We're not permitted to choose between belonging to God and belonging to his people.

They go together always to have God is to have the family of God, to have the father is

to have his children, his brothers and sisters, no escaping about it, that's the way it is.

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