Loyalty

By DAVID EPPS
Contributing Writer

Does the concept of “loyalty” mean nothing these days?

One dictionary defines loyalty as “a feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection.” The dictionary indicates that “loyalty” is akin to “fidelity,” which means, “faithfulness to obligations, duties, or observances.”

I spoke to a retired military chaplain the other day who said that the war in Iraq is keeping him busy talking to some reservists and active duty personnel who wish to avoid going into a combat zone. “What about your obligations and duty do you not understand?” he says to them. “Where is your loyalty when your Commander-in-Chief needs you and calls upon you?” he asks them.

Disloyalty, of course, is defined as “The quality of being disloyal; faithlessness. A disloyal act.”

A lack of loyalty is as ancient as Cain killing his brother Abel, as old as King Saul betraying the young David who had brought Saul’s nation victory over the giant Goliath. Jesus himself experienced disloyalty from many of those he touched and healed. A poignant example is found in Luke 17: 11-21 where ten men afflicted with the dread disease of leprosy came to him to beg his help. “Master, have mercy on us!” they cried (Luke 17:13 NASB) and all ten were healed. Only one of them, “fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him,” (17:16) and this man wasn’t even one of the “chosen people.” Jesus said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine — where are they? Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:17:18 NASB)

Jesus, who raised common people to Apostles and endued them with greatness, would find himself almost totally deserted during the hour of his greatest need. Save one, all his “faithful, loyal men,” left him to hang alone in public humiliation.

Loyalty remembers the benefit one receives from another. In 1980, when I desperately needed a ministry position, Clarence Cope took me on his staff at a great church in Grand Junction, Colo. My wife was expecting our third son, she was having heart problems, our money was gone, I was pitifully underpaid, and we had no insurance. I was only 29 years old and had a lackluster resume when he allowed me to join the staff that served this church of over 1,200 worshippers. I learned so much and was given such opportunity that it has never occurred to me that I have a “loyalty option.” I will always be grateful to him, and to the many others who have helped me through the years, and I hope and pray I never reward their kindness to me by offering to them treachery, betrayal, or disloyalty.

Loyalty stands with someone even in difficult times. Loyalty does not abandon, or betray, or gossip, or backstab. Loyalty, because it is rooted in “a feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection,” i.e. “love,” “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things ... is not provoked” (1 Cor. 13:6 NASB) (and) “does not take into account a wrong suffered ... ” (1 Cor. 13:5 NASB).

Loyalty is powered by love and must have humility and selflessness to prevail but disloyalty needs only selfishness, ambition, and self-preservation to flourish. Benedict Arnold was a great man and a warrior general prior to and during the Revolutionary War. Yet, he became dissatisfied with his lot, felt he was better qualified than George Washington, and felt unappreciated. Today, he is remembered by both Americans and British as a despised traitor. Such is the permanent legacy of disloyalty.

As a minister and pastor of some 35 years, disloyalty has become a familiar, although unwelcome, companion. Once, I loaned a man several thousand dollars because we were close and he was in need. He never paid it back and has never even thanked me. In a former denomination, I assisted quite a number of men (and women) in entering the ministry and securing positions in churches. How many have turned back to say, “Thanks,” and remembered those days with loyalty? Pitifully few. I, as have most other pastors, expended thousands of hours in energy, prayer, counseling, assisting, and comforting people only to see people I loved and trusted leave for other churches when they thought they could get a “better deal.”

The betrayal of Jesus by Judas was so very painful because Judas was a trusted friend. Even then, Jesus remained loyal to his hard-hearted friend when he prayed that those who were destroying him might be forgiven “for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 NASB).

It is easy to be a patriot when there is peace. It is comfortable and pleasing to be loyal when no sacrifice is required. It is during the conflict and during times of unsettledness that men’s hearts are revealed and their loyalty—or lack of it—comes to light. History does not always remember the names of the brave, the courageous, the faithful, and the loyal, although they are many. But the legacies of men such as General Benedict Arnold live forever. We know that loyalty is right and that disloyalty is wrong. When our moment comes, may we stand with those who have helped us and now, in their difficult hour, need our fidelity.