Choosing My Ultimate Allegiance

During a long layover in an airport years ago, I experienced some unpleasant interaction with airport staff. While wandering the terminal looking for something to help pass the time, I came upon the lounge for the particular airline I was flying. My immediate thought was “here is a place to relax for a few hours.” Knowing nothing at that time about how airline lounges operated, I was stopped at the door and asked if I needed help. When I said I just wanted to come in to hang out between flights, the woman asked to see my boarding pass. After staring at it for a few moments, her gaze shifted to me. Her eyes scanned me up and down. Her expression changed from a smiling servant to a scowling judge.

“You don’t belong in here,” she said, lifting her nose a bit higher and returning the boarding pass as if it was infected with deadly bacteria. “You can ‘hang out’ over there.” And she pointed to rows of seating on the other side of the hall that were bursting with human bodies. Without another word, she turned and let the door slowly close behind her so I could glimpse what I was being denied: padded chairs that looked as if they could double as beds as well as a buffet line full of all kinds of food and drinks. I walked away, sorry I was missing the comfort, but mostly stinging from being told I was not worthy of such a place. The snub weighed heavy on me for the rest of the day.

Why Does It Hurt So?

We humans hate being turned away and left out. Many associated words come to mind that leave the same residue of pain: shunned, rejected, not welcomed, unwanted, devalued, despised, abandoned. Places, groups, or events that are exclusively for certain people and have strict criteria for who are allowed are always wonderful for those who are “in.” But we who are left out easily let that hurt turn into anger and even bitterness. No one likes being forced to be on the “outside.”

This is especially true when the criteria for being on the inside is based on things we cannot change about ourselves, like skin color, nationality, and ethnicity. Taking a stance of exclusivity has become especially unpopular and even illegal in our present cultural climate. And for most cases, I believe it is good to challenge old and unexamined exclusive attitudes.

Is It Ever Right?

But as a follower of Jesus, I am caught in what feels like a dilemma.

Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through me” (John 14:6 ESV).

For those seeking the path to God, this statement makes it sound pretty narrow. Jesus seems to be claiming that everyone who wants to get to God must go through Him. This has a very exclusive feel to it. Jesus only. Is it wrong? I know that many people through the centuries have angrily fumed over such a restricting idea. These words of Jesus have often been reinterpreted by some followers to sound softer, less exclusive. Or they have just been ignored – appreciating the inclusive things Jesus did and said but pretending the narrow, exclusive things we don’t like aren’t really there.

Going all the way back to the first followers of Jesus, there was a paradoxical dichotomy. The Christian faith spread far, wide, and fast because the Jesus followers were SO INCLUSIVE. They embraced the poor, the outcasts, the sick, the weak, and the most vulnerable. Yet they were also in danger of being spit upon, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and killed because they held to the MOST EXCLUSIVE claim that Jesus was the ONLY way to God. They could never tolerate offering sacrifices to a Roman emperor just to get along with neighbors and local government. They were often called “atheists” because they didn’t worship or believe in the gods everyone else did. 

There are ancient stories of people trying to convince Christ followers to loosen up a bit and let Jesus be one among the multiple deities that everyone else was paying tribute to. They could then get along with everyone. But no. They were bigoted, narrow-mined. The faithful ones would rather suffer and die than submit to the idea that there were multiple paths to God. And yet, this Christ-following religion grew, even with their exclusive claims of there being only “one way.”

A Living Paradox

Of course, it’s important to be clear where the Christian faith has stubbornly held its exclusive claims and where it has not. The Gospel (Good News) message of Jesus has NEVER excluded anyone. That’s part of why it is good news. A major theme in the Book of Acts in the New Testament, is that Jesus and the fellowship of His followers is not just for one ethnic or social group. This disturbed a lot of people back then but made many others very happy. What made the faith exclusive was that Jesus had to be recognized and worshiped as Lord and King. His followers could not have two (or more) masters. This part did not go over well with everyone and still does not.

There are cases today where those who claim to follow Jesus do not embrace those who are different, marginalized, or foreign. But there are also cases where those who claim to follow Jesus want to widen the path so that even those who have no intention of making Jesus their Lord can still be made to be one of them.

So, how can we be as inclusive as Jesus was and yet hold on to the narrow exclusivity He claimed for Himself as Lord of all? At times it feels impossible, but it’s a tension that we who follow Jesus must learn to embrace.

The Tension

My conclusion: exclusivity is not always wrong or bad. And inclusivity does have some requirements for being “let in.”

Even my unpleasant brush with exclusivity at the airline lounge, on second thought, is grounded in reason. I hadn’t paid for what is understandably a costly privilege – all-you-can-eat food and beverages. It was the accompanying snobbery that hurt and wasn’t necessary.

There is one state of being that CANNOT include everyone and everything. And that is who or what carries your highest allegiance? Who or what is the Lord of your life? Jesus welcomes EVERYONE to Himself. But there comes a time when He requires each of us to lay down the other gods we have been clinging to, be they people, ideas, habits, hatreds, lifestyles, or any self-centered entanglement. He is the exclusive King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He will not share this title with anything or anyone.

May Jesus be worshiped as the One who is at the same time the most inclusive and exclusive of all.

Response:

• How do I understand the EXCLUSIVE claim that Jesus is the only way to God?
• How do I live out His INCLUSIVE example of caring for the poor, marginalized, and most vulnerable?
• How ready am I to be misunderstood by others when they don’t understand my first allegiance?
• Jesus, give me grace to walk in this counter-cultural paradox of radical love and radical allegiance to your Lordship.

(Edited and reposted from March 3, 2025 “Choosing to Not Fear Exclusivity”)