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Loyalty; the quality of owing allegiance to a course of action or a person, is one vital thing that every Pastor needs from his congregation.

We, Christians, are supposed to be committed and loyal to Jesus Christ, our Saviour and the Author of our faith.

Obviously, how can one claim to be a Christian if the person isn't loyal to the Christ body? C'est impossible! So, I pretty much believe and understand that all Christians must be loyal to their churches and Head Pastors.

Sycophancy, on the other hand, is trying to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage. Sycophancy is not a brother nor a sister to loyalty.

Sycophants are bootlickers. Sycophants sing the praises of people because they want to end up in the good books of their masters. Sycophants are, if I may say, the worse hypocrites to come across in life!

Sycophants act as politicians in church instead of Christians in church. There is a thin line between loyalty and sycophancy. This is something that some Pastors are missing.

Christians are busily snitching on their fellow Christians to their Pastors in the name of loyalty but behind the veil is sycophancy and not loyalty.

Christians are busily back biting their fellow Christians and blacklisting them in the eyes of their Pastors in the name of being loyal to their Spiritual fathers and mothers.

The truth is instead of Pastors going on a hunt for disloyal sons and daughters (disloyal congregants), they should start revising their notes and hunt for the sycophants who wear sheep clothing but are wolves inwardly.

I beg your pardon. If you're reading this write-up and beginning to think I'm judging some Christian folks, then please stop reading because you're not my target audience.

The truth is Pastors should stop encouraging their members to be gossips and begin to teach them to help the weaker ones to be strong in the faith of God. Why do I confide in a Christian brother or sister and the next minute I read it on the lips of my church Pastor?

These gossips are hailed as the loyal ones. Are we breeding news reporters in churches or Christians who must reflect the life of Christ?

I take exception to this sycophantic character of some Christians and Pastors of the 21st Century. Sons and daughters are required to be loyal to their parents. The same way Spiritual sons and daughters are equally required to be faithful and loyal to their Spiritual parents in the Lord.

There's nothing wrong with being loyal to your church Pastor. In fact, there is nothing wrong with taking the dirt of your church Pastors on yourself.

If I may say, there is nothing wrong in receiving a bullet for your Pastors to live. But there is everything wrong with snitching on fellow Christians for credit from your man/woman of God. And this is the seed that the devil is sowing in our churches today.

Pastors are busily searching for disloyal Christians while the devil has taken a comfortable seat at the center of the church and sowed a seed of discord. He's busily putting heads together in church and our Pastors are busily walking so-called disloyal Christians out of church. Since when did the church turn into a nightclub with bouncers bouncing people out of the church?

My bible tells me that God's love is unfailing for all (not some) and if it's very easy for Pastors to drive away some people because they have personal issues with them, then who are the people we're evangelizing for God? Who are the souls we're supposed to win for God?

Again, my bible tells me our Master Jesus the Christ came to save the lost. If we can't tolerate the lost in church as Pastors, then we might as well preach to our family members and leave the drunkards, prostitutes and wee smokers etc. to continue their ways. Why do we think that wrongdoers need salvation but the so-called disloyal ones need condemnation or banishment from the church of God?

This is how the 21st Century churches are behaving towards their congregation. The fact that I choose not to gossip to my Pastor about somebody means I am disloyal...oh yes, that's what our churches today have been turned into. Information Centers instead of the church of God!

What's your motive for stabbing a fellow Christian in the back by revealing his or her confidential conversations with you to your church Pastor?

A friend of mine once confided in a member of his church. The member happens to be a beloved leader of the church Pastor. My friend poured out his heart to him thinking that by letting it all out, he would be saved from depression.

Little did he know that he had added frustration to his depression by revealing his secrets to the fellow Christian who he thought would treat him with confidentiality.

This friend of mine told the fellow everything he had done wrong and right. He told him how much he wants to turn a new leaf and doesn't want to go back to his old life because he has found Christ.

After confessing his deeds to the fellow and hoping he being a weaker vessel would be helped by the stronger vessel later heard his tape being played to him by the Pastor of the church.

He started to wonder how the Pastor got to know about his deeds but later realized his fellow snitched on him, all in the name of loyalty to his Spiritual father.

My question is didn't my friend know he had a Pastor and yet he chose to confide in you? Did he ask you to be his mouthpiece by disclosing his secrets to your Pastor? What stopped you from disallowing yourself from hearing the message if you thought your head is not a wholesale?

The worry is those Christian gossips forget about their own cobwebs. How much of the cobwebs in your closet have you cleared to qualify to snitch on your fellow weaker Christian?

There are too many SYCOPHANTS in church than LOYAL CHRISTIANS. If Pastors can open their eyes wide, they will notice the thin line between sycophancy and loyalty. Sycophants appear to be loyal in church.

It's better to keep a dozen "disloyal" Christians around you (Pastors) than to harbour sycophants around you.

For the disloyal ones, you know they are not for you and can guard yourself against them but for the sycophants; they will leave you in the middle of vipers when you most need their help!

Selah; it means Pause & Think!!