Loyalty

Now here is a virtue that we may not be aware of until we feel the loss of it in those around us. Loyalty and steadfastness are very similar, and we use one to define the other: to be loyal is to be steadfast (immovable) in one’s allegiance to a person, cause, or country; faithful, firm, not changing or yielding; constant and dependable to those that one is under obligation to defend or support.

Our first allegiance must be to God. This is loyalty: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Jesus spelled this out in Matthew 6:24: No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

But without God’s steadfastness and loyalty to His people, we could not of ourselves be steadfast.

Heb. 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…

Christ was steadfast in purpose when He went to the cross: Luke 9:51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.

Steadfastness is a matter of the heart. It is an internal discipline, something that God works into us and we work out, like the fruit of the Spirit. Our roots go deep into Christ, and godly fruit shows up on the branches. This is not something we can do of ourselves; it comes of trusting in the Lord.Ps. 57:7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.

Ps. 112:7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

We are commanded to be steadfast in the faith:

1 Cor. 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Col. 1:23 …if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Heb. 3:14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

1 Pet. 5:9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith…..

The early converts were described in Acts 2:42 as continuing “steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” The Christian life requires loyalty to God in doctrine, prayer, and communion, as well as loyalty in fellowship with other believers.  We see this same idea in Romans 12:12: …continuing steadfastly in prayer. Col. 2:5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

There is a danger of falling from steadfastness, but it comes from being “led away with the error of the wicked.” We are to be steadfast in doctrine which protects us from error, trusting in the anchor of our souls. Disloyalty is companion to lies and flattery, and we know where lies come from. Disloyalty is the result of being led astray by false doctrine.

2 Pet. 3:17 …beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ps. 78:36-37 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth and they lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant.

Women are vulnerable to deception, particularly when it comes in the form of flattery. Our mother Eve was deceived by the flattery of the serpent and fell into transgression (1 Tim. 14).  Lies seldom come in honestly declaring,  “Hi, I am now deceiving you.” But if we are steadfast in the faith, we recognize a lie and have the power to resist and reject it (see 1 Pet. 5:9). We are to reject lies and “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

As Christians we are to be loyal to our God, our family, our church, our people, our nation. If our family, church, people or nation becomes apostate, our first and primary loyalty is to God. This requires us to be “disloyal” to anything or anyone who is disloyal to God. A wife is to be loyal to her husband. But if he is unfaithful, Scripture says she may divorce him. Children are to be loyal to their parents and siblings, grandparents and extended family. But if that family rejects God and is seeking to persuade the children to do the same, they are required to be disloyal. “Mom, Dad, you know I love you, but I cannot follow you into disbelief.” If we have friends or family members who are being “led away with the error of the wicked,” our loyalty prohibits us being fellow travelers with them.

This requires courage and faith, because sometimes we want to give way to the flattery, and sometimes we don’t have the nerve to stand up for our own people. One of our former boarders told us that when she was visiting France with her family some years ago, she was on a tour when the tourguide started making fun of the Huguenots. She told him to stop speaking that way of “her people.” That is what loyalty looks like.

Wives ought to stand up for their husbands and children, to be loyal to their church and “their people” whenever they come under attack from the unrighteous. When we find ourselves backing away from those to whom we owe our allegiance, we ought to check our doctrine and see if we are being led away from the truth by flattery or deception.