Commitment to Jesus equals radical devotion. Unrivaled loyalty. Inevitable division. Not everyone wants to devote their futures to the Lord, and those who forsake the trail may forsake your life as well. But those who do want the Lord will walk with you side by side chasing after Jesus.

Jesus is our focus. We commit only to Him. No other God but Him. No other way but His.

“Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” James 1:8

Stability comes from loyalty to Jesus because it steadies the mind in one way of life. One truth. One God. Then when other temptations or enticements arise that are outside of Jesus’ way of life, we can discern and look to Jesus for wisdom. In James 1, James talks about going to God for wisdom.

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.” James 1:5-6

God loves when you ask for wisdom from Him.

Wisdom comes from Jesus alone. Being loyal to Jesus grants you access to His voice of wisdom to speak to you. Divided loyalty makes it difficult to choose the right path because either path can appear promising. But with undivided loyalty to Jesus Christ, He gives clear wisdom about which path is the best to take.

Unwavering loyalty results from unwavering commitment to Jesus as the only God. “Be sure that your faith is in God alone,” verse 6 says. We put our faith in Him alone. We don’t trust in other gods. Jesus is our one God. Our one love. Our one hope. Our one answer. Our one deliverer. Our one redeemer.

Our mission comes from Jesus instructing us what to do. We must be loyal to His mission. Commit only to His mission.

Love flows from commitment to Jesus. He is the never-ending fountain of love. When we commit our hearts only to Jesus, we gain a never-ending well of love inside our own souls from His living water.

We love others because Jesus’ love compels us.

“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples.” John 13:35

If we want to be loyal to Jesus and only Jesus, we must follow His words to love our neighbor.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

Loving ourselves begins with loving Jesus first. Jesus said that the first commandment is to love Him with all our hearts because this is the relationship where we learn about love. God is our first love and His love is our example for how to love everyone else in our lives. But we cannot set anyone else above God in our hearts.

Jesus said He wants unrivaled devotion.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” Psalm 37:5-6

Commit to Me, Jesus says. Give everything to Me, Jesus asks. Then He will shine His love through us. We must commit to Him. Jesus wants long-term commitment.

Do not go after other gods.

Real faith trust in one God only. Jesus Christ.

“For there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5

One God.

If someone tells you to go after another god, then that is false hope. Trusting in other gods does not work because other gods are not real. Methods we devise do not work. Jesus’ methods work. Thoughts apart from the Holy Spirit do not produce wisdom. Jesus and His Holy Spirit produces wisdom. The Bible produces wisdom.

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” Proverbs 18:2

We must understand the Bible’s words and its meaning to express truth from God’s hearts.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7

To learn pure, substantial knowledge from Jesus, we must honor Him as Lord and King. Faith in Jesus increases understanding because you can trust in God’s way even when it seems mysterious and outside the framework of what we know. Faith grows our knowledge of God as we dive into scripture to learn more about Him. Faith grows our wisdom as we cling to God’s Words as the best words for our decision-making.

“Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” Proverbs 28:26

“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.” Proverbs 29:11

There are moments where Jesus tells us to hold back on our opinions because it does not serve an eternal purpose for the hearers. We need to remember that a person’s eternal destiny is God’s priority. Truth of eternal life in Jesus Christ must be known from us by what we say. Venting does not always help bring others closer to Jesus.

Abandon everything that takes you away from Jesus.

Leave a place if that place that begs for your allegiance to be given to a god other than Jesus.

Jesus is God and He is the only God!

We live for Jesus alone, and want the rest of the world to come to know Him as Lord while we wait for His return. Jesus will not come back for His second return until all the world hears the gospel of Jesus Christ. Share His message of hope so that New Heaven and Earth can be ushered in.

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Matthew 24:14