April 30, 2009 a weekly devotional
every thought captive from Park Cities Presbyterian Church
But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him... Luke 15:28
tion. He is faultless in compliance, steadfast in restraint. Yet this allegiance is mercenary because it is not driven by love for his father, but by his own desire for gain—as Sunday’s sermon reminded us.
You’ve likely never heard their names: Mike Hoare, Simon Mann, Bob Dennard, Robert C. McKenzie, Patrick Sarsfield. They would’ve preferred that, because they weren’t doing what they were doing for notoriety; they were doing it for money.
If it had been for love he obeyed, would he not have looked with sorrow and pity upon his profligate brother, rather than scorn? You mourn for those whose folly keeps them from good if you yourself are the beneficiary of that good. But consider also his response to his father’s joy. If he loved to do his father’s will, would not contentment rather than envy have been his response to the celebration of his brother’s return?
They were mercenaries—resourceful, cunning individuals without personal, moral, or ideological allegiance to those they serve. John Calvin employed the same term to refer to some people’s love. “Mercenary acts,” he said, “are of no account in the sight of God. Not that he absolutely condemns all acts of kindness which are done in the hope of a reward; but he shows that they are of no weight as a testimony of charity; because he alone is truly beneficent to his neighbors, who is led to assist them without any regard to his own advantage, but looks only to the necessities of each.”1
In that light his obedience is even more obscene. A true mercenary knows his only allegiance is to himself. The older brother only thinks his allegiance is to his father; he doesn’t realize where his true affections lie. His younger brother was self-deceived to think he could find his good apart from his father. The older brother was no less deceived to think that it was for his father that he labored.
The older brother of Jesus’ parable exemplifies precisely what we should fear. His allegiance has all the appearance of noble devo-
Can you see why we must fear this older brother’s version of allegiance? How easily can we drift into a self-serving servitude. Like a 6