More and more we are hearing it as a popular trend that church members are being requested to sign a "loyalty oath" to denominationalism. The churchianity of our times, guided by the modern ecclesiastic, is tightening the grip that dominates the thoughts and actions of church members. Accepting Christ as Savior no longer seems sufficient for the individual's commitment to church membership. The New Testament gave the priority of such identification with the church as follows: "And the Lord added the ones being saved from day to day together (to the church)" (Acts 2:47b, Nestle Text).
What greater essential could possibly be made of anyone than being saved and accepted by the Lord Jesus? The substitutes of our time gauge the loyalty of a church member by the saints; and I always thought (and still do) that it would be impossible to build a true church without Bible saints. What more wonderful reality could be vouchsafed to any demand made by any ecclesiastic than the glorious fact of being born again through the blood of Jesus Christ? Is this a worn-out, faded fact in these days? You cannot tie up people to the signatures of a written "loyalty oath." It is not only unscriptural, but it binds the conscience and cheer of giving with the true sacrifice of free-born believers.
During the early days of the New Testament, other bondages were suspected when the brethren of the Jerusalem Council met to keep free the recent legacy given by the Lord Jesus Himself. They met; they discussed the matter. They prayed; they resolved the issue. Nothing more wholesome and free was ever written to verify the grace of God working in human hearts, unhampered by the additional debts of cheap churchmen. The words were clear; the words were complete. They are most fitting for our time, and we would do well to practice the matter by our most sacred obedience. "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things" (Acts 15:28a). To clutter church membership with "things" and "oaths" and human "loyalties" will but obscure the greatest loyalty of them all—that of following Christ by biblical obedience. Christ does not ask us to show our love to Him by headlong zeal, but by simple obedience to His Word.
Would to God we were as zealous for biblical principles as the modern trend is zealous for earthy progress. You can never legislate "loyalty," in the final analysis, from any man; but the power of the grace of God can bring a loyalty that will be individually volitional and free. When things are biblically sound, Christians will give their loyalty free!