The Last Crusade: On Loyalty

You’ll find quite often with the worldly that there’s a distinct lack of loyalty. As soon as you start letting it be known you’re a Christian, speaking out on Christianity, spending time and energy with your Christian brothers and sisters – you’ll notice that your former friends will begin to ostracize you. They’ll find a reason to call you names, say you’ve changed, that you’re hateful or whatnot now (ironic, as the only true love comes from God, but remember that evil presents itself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing). They will be there not to be your friend any longer, but to try to gaslight you into believing that you’re doing something wrong and evil by walking in the path God has set for you.

In the public sphere, whenever a champion of traditional values shows up in art, news, culture of any kind,the media presents how the person has had a failing, is bad, has done something unforgivable, and therefore you MUST disavow them. You must be disloyal in order to prove to the world that you’re a decent human being. They present this under the guise of caring about morality, while espousing the direct opposite. It’s under the guise of compassion for the little people, when in fact they want to hold people down under their power. And we as Christians often bite at this very quickly, and very easily. We’re quick to disavow our brothers and sisters. Why? Because we like to prove that we’re more moral, that we don’t approve of such things. That’s the direct opposite of what Christ taught us.

It happens every time. Disloyalty is actually the cause of most problems in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The whole theme of the Bible is how man is disloyal to God in exchange for quick material comforts. From Adam and Eve’s betrayal in the garden, to Jonah’s refusal to go where God desired, to the fact that Israel brutally murdered many of their prophets and finally Jesus Christ, we are warned at every step that disloyalty is of this world.

From the Gospels, look at the actions of the Apostles. Their biggest failures are when the Apostles saw the going getting tough, and opted to be disloyal to Christ rather than stand with him. Judas is the easiest example of this, as when political stirrings and the world started to turn on Christ, he freaked out when he was asked if he was a follower. And then, for cheap material comforts, he delivered the ultimate act of disloyalty. Peter, when Christ was executed, did the same thing when confronted in public about his association with Christ. You can imagine him as a modern person: “I’m not associated! I disavow!”

This is the prince of this world’s act to divide us and destroy us. It is spiritual warfare at its deepest level. The whole purpose of each and every one of these acts of disloyalty is to make sure we do not stand together as the Body of Christ. You’ll see that the secularists are quite the opposite. If there’s a problem on their front, they’re quick to cover it up, minimize it, rally around their cause to drown out any noise and ensure that the collective whole is stronger. For some odd reason, we don’t do this as Christians, and it weakens us.

Here’s the hard truth: we all have evil within us. We all have done something worthy of being disavowed forever. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And not by our own selves or anything we can do to make up for it, Christ has redeemed us. He was loyal to us even when we have not been loyal to him.

Loyalty is in fact a Godly virtue. Be loyal first and foremost to God. Be loyal second to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be loyal third to country. Stand by your brothers and sisters in hard times. Don’t let them get destroyed, or have their lives ruined when the times get tough. That’s when they need your support. That’s the whole point of the Church and fellowship. Only through our compassion in those difficult times, and sticking by each other will we be able to keep faith firm. The result will be a stronger Church, a stronger community, and stronger voices and advocates for Christ. This is desperately what the world needs in these trying times.