Another Old Fashioned Word Bites The Dust

“Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled. Now therefore send quickly, and tell David…” II Sam.17:15,16

Chapters 15 through 18 of Second Samuel gives us the sad account of Absolom’s betrayal and treason against his father, King David. His betrayal becomes an occasion for others to either join him in his betrayal or to remain loyal to the King. Two examples are given us in the persons of Ahithophel and Hushai. Ahithophel had been David’s advisor but now chose to serve Absolom the usurper and to assist him in his betrayal of the King. Hushai had also served King David but chose to remain loyal to his King. He becomes a key player in the restoration of King David to his throne. The old fashioned word is, of course, “loyalty”.

This past week it was reported that two men who worked with the Muslin terrorists at Guantanamo would be charged with crimes as serious as treason. One was a Muslin chaplain the other was an interpreter. Both are United States citizens. Both had sworn their loyalty to the United States. Undoubtedly both had been exposed to the superior government and way of life offered by the United States compared to the best of all the Arab states put together. Both were well aware of the stated goal of Muslin terrorists to murder and main as many Americans as possible and they were certainly well aware of the insane, unprovoked attack on America on September 11, 2001. Yet, if proven guilty, they would have chosen loyalty to Ben Laden and disloyalty to the US.

Whatever happened to loyalty? A word we don’t hear that often anymore. After all, loyalty involves character, a sense of principle, a strong feeling that certain things demand priority, like family, country and honor. The aforementioned men would likely argue that they were indeed yal, loyal to the cause espoused by the terrorists. This is misplaced loyalty and this misplaced loyalty amounts to treason against America.

Of course the spirit of the times makes little of honor and character and even less of country and home. There used to be something called “company loyalty” where an employee felt a loyalty to his employer. People laugh at that concept today and in many cases who can blame them? With “downsizing” of major companies getting slim and mean, especially mean, the looting of employee pension funds, company shares in retirement funds made worthless by CEO crookedness, employee loyalty in such cases would be moronic. Still there are those employers who have it right by having a sense of loyalty to their employees, who in turn are more apt to be loyal to them. But don’t count on it. God’s command to the employee is to serve the employer as “unto the Lord.” Eph.6:7

There used to be a thing called “family loyalty” where sons or daughters could be counted on to be loyal to Mom & Dad and to the rest of the family. They would fight anyone who dared to ridicule or malign their parents or other members of the family. Now days most often there is more loyalty to their peers than to their parents. There are some cases where parents have even been murdered to prove loyalty to the “group”. The interest of “best friends” becomes more important than the best interest of family and woe be to the mom or dad who get between teenage son or daughter and their “best friend.” God’s command to children is of course that they “honor your father and your mother” Exo.20:12

We have touched on national loyalty, on company loyalty, and on family loyalty, now a word on church loyalty. What’s wrong with being loyal to your church? I’m not talking loyalty to some apostate organization or some dead so-called church; you shouldn’t be in them in the first place. Why is it that the average church member of even really good soul winning, fundamental churches has little or no concept of church loyalty? Hit or miss, if I have nothing else to do, oops-little league night, PTA, special movie, friends happened to drop in, I’ll go to your church if you’ll go to mine, just too much trouble (yet you drove fifty miles to the ball game) any excuse will do. Symptoms, just symptoms of a far deeper problem. Your casual attitude toward your church is just a reflection of your casual attitude toward the Lord Jesus. He loved the church so much He died for it, how much do you love it? You see if you love the Lord Jesus you will love His church and your loyalty to it will be set in concrete. God’s command to the church member is that they “not forsake the assembly” (The Church) Heb.10:25

Of course when we get into church life we can speak of class loyalty, (Sunday School Class) choir loyalty, loyalty to the teacher, to the staff and to the pastor. Cases of misplaced loyalties in the Lord’s work simply abounds. Loyalty to visiting friends or family takes priority over loyalty to the church as do loyalty to PTA and Little League. That’s misplaced loyalty. Loyalty to a friend who keeps you out of your SS class is misplaced loyalty. Loyalty to a miffed choir member over loyalty to the choir and choir director is misplaced loyalty. Ditto for the Sunday School class. Loyalty to a friend with hurt feelings over loyalty to a church staff member is misplaced loyalty and loyalty to a backslidden church member or loyalty to a staff member over loyalty to your pastor is misplaced loyalty. The point is beyond argument.

What are the causes of such disloyalty? Probably more than we can count though I will name a few. Material gain I suppose is behind most national disloyalty. Traitors of note usually are frank to say that they put love of money over love of country. Ideology accounts for much of the treason going on in our country today. False idealism played a large part in 9/11. Though these were raiders more than traitors their American idealistic sympathizers are certainly traitors. Family relationships are behind much disloyalty to company, church, teacher, staff and pastor. The principle of right and wrong is tossed out the window in favor of family. Sounds good but can be absolutely devastating especially to churches and pastors. Youth Directors get their share of parental wrath anytime the parent perceives them to be “down on my kid”. A good chance the Youth Director loves the kid more than the parent does. Churches have been split over family loyalty.

The “underdog syndrome”, as I have coined the phrase, is a cause for much disloyalty. What in the world is the “underdog syndrome”? The underdog syndrome is a common affliction suffered by those whose heart always goes out to the underdog. These type people are often referred to as “bleeding hearts”. The underdogs are those who are less advantaged, and---well that just about says it doesn’t it? Whether they be third world countries, orphans and street people, or anyone in less a position than the upper dog over them. Employees, students, prison inmates, assistant whatever’s, and staff members make up this great number of underdogs. And the problem is compounded when the underdog is also considered a personal friend. The sad thing is that most of these people regardless of how much intelligence they show in other matters seem to shut down their brain when it comes to defending the underdog. I mean matters of right and wrong, principle, justice, God and country mean zip to them. Their perspective is so skewed they would even argue that they are acting on principle, etc. A comment was made the other day about a person that was meant to be complimentary and taken to be such by the person of whom the comment was made. When I was told that the comment was a put down I told myself, “The underdog syndrome”. Sure enough a little later in the conversation the person admitted that they were always for the underdog. Then another little interesting note-I thought to myself, “To interpret a positive remark in a negative way requires a certain mindset”, such as “You are out to put this person down.” So I told the person that there was some reason why they took the positive remark in that way and ask what the problem was and it was finally admitted there was a problem which really only amounted to a misunderstanding.

The superseding loyalty belongs to the King Jesus. He has placed certain people in positions of authority and responsibility to represent Himself. This even extends to the law enforcement officer who is “ the minister of God to thee for good. “ Rom.13:4 Includes also parents, Godley teachers, the Lord’s under-shepherds, etc. I have a personal policy that I admit is at times hard to maintain. I have said many times from the pulpit that any time a student comes to me with a beef about a teacher I am automatically on the side of the teacher. Anytime a child comes to me with a complaint about their parents I am automatically on the side of their parents. That’s something I’ve made up my mind about ahead of time. Why do I do that? Because I am trying to teach them respect for God given authority. Therefore I am automatically on the side of the authority. Loyalty to the Lord Jesus REQUIRES me to be loyal to those whom God has placed over me. To be disloyal to them is to be disloyal to Christ. If I find that a person in a lawful office is himself disloyal to Christ I still must respect that office. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees?---“Do as they say but do not do as they do…”Why? They sat in Moses seat. Matthew 23:2,3 Now if they try to force me to be disloyal to Jesus that is a different matter for we ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29