Let's dip into God's Word for a few, brief, verses. (pick at least three to read to your class)
Judges 8:35, They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.
1 Samuel 22:14, Ahimelek answered the king, “Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king’s son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household?
2 Samuel 2:10, Ish-Bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned two years. The tribe of Judah, however, remained loyal to David.
2 Samuel 3:8, Abner was very angry because of what Ish-Bosheth said. So he answered, “Am I a dog’s head—on Judah’s side? This very day I am loyal to the house of your father Saul and to his family and friends. I haven’t handed you over to David. Yet now you accuse me of an offense involving this woman!
1 Kings 12:20, When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.
1 Chronicles 12:29, Saul’s tribe—3,000, most of whom had remained loyal to Saul’s house until then;
1 Chronicles 12:33, from Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty—50,000;
Psalm 78:8, They would not be like their ancestors— a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
Psalm 78:37, their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
Question the class on “What is the common thread of those verses.
In the dictionary, the word “Loyalty” is defined as an unwavering allegiance. An allegiance to government, individual, cause, ideal or custom. What organizations, team, persons, causes, et cetera, are you loyal to?
How does loyalty and friendship differ? How are they the same? How would you feel if a friend proved disloyal? How do you think God feels about us? Are you loyal to God and friends?
1 Chronicles 29:18, Lord, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.
Colossians 3:23, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
“Loyalty to God leads to devotion to others. Devotion to others requires the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice leads to greater rewards in heaven.”
Usually positive things have many polar opposites. What are some opposites of loyalty? (Ask the class to respond)
Many secular persons believe they can exercise one of a few electable choices; They can become Christians, they can stay apathetically neutral, they can deny God or, as some do, embrace and reach out to Satan. Those last three are severely wrong! We all start on the wrong team, all guilty of eternal damnation. We can't choose Satan because that is our default team, our human nature. If you don't believe that, just think back on how many one and two-year old's you know that are able to throw quite the tantrum with no training whatsoever? The one choice we have is to give our allegiance and loyalty to God. Then we move to the winning team.
2 Timothy 1:15, [ Examples of Disloyalty and Loyalty ] You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
Psalm 12:1, Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.
Of loyalty, the Bible tells us:
Loyalty is unwavering in good times and bad. (Proverbs 17:17)
Loyalty is what you do, not what you say. (Matthew 26:33-35 and 26:69-75)
Loyalty is in your heart. It is willing and not reluctant. (Psalm 78:8)
Loyalty can be demanding. (Exodus 17:8-13)
Loyalty may involve sacrifice. (2 Chronicles 11:13-16)
Loyalty to the Lord will be rewarded. (Psalm 84:10-11) When this psalm says “those whose walk is blameless” it refers to Genesis 17:1 when the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him “walk with me and be blameless” meaning that Abraham would receive the Lord’s promises if he was faithful and obedient.
We should be able to see that the word "loyalty" has definite relationships to our obligations. Not necessarily legally bound but where we feel virtuously or morally bound. Sometimes, as with marriage ceremonies, we see blended reflections of what is legal and moral. On most wedding days, the couple's love and loyalty to each other seems to be everlasting. Everlasting until one jokingly smears cake on the face of the other. If not then, the difficulties of a faithful, loyal marriage may soon begin.
There is also no doubt loyalty within marriage has always been difficult. First of all, both man and woman must be submissive to each other. Being submissive is not easy. The same can be said of being faithful within the marriage boundaries because a sinful nature has driven humankind since Adam and Eve. Human nature has not changed. Human nature has always been self-centered and driven to compete or to control. This is because Satan has been alive the whole time, and ruling as god of this world, infusing both genders with layers of sin of many forms and temptations. Due to our ever evolving moral breakdowns, not only has marriage become more difficult, many “couples” live like they are married in defiance of secular morality and God's law.
These moral breakdowns are sweeping not only across America but bursting through the doors of umpteen churches spreading an evil soot not only over the pews but over many pulpits as well. One of the most evil examples of this is how the “Pro-Choice”, “Woman's Rights”, “Gay Pride”groups have increased their influence over our secular and religious cultures.
These were the movements that promoted "abortion on demand" and the murder of over 60 million unborn American children and over 1,500,000,000 children of every race and religion. World wide, a baby is being aborted each second, with no exaggeration. Many of the so called liberal groups, that are so willing to kill innocent babies, want us to have tolerance towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer social movements. They are the prime movers of the homosexual agenda and the acceptance of same-sex "marriage."
Misguided, “so called Christians” constantly want to demonize us if we don't accept their radical, ungodly, view points. Where once these groups just wanted protection under the law, which they were given, now they want their views preached for indoctrination down to the kindergarten level of our public schools. While not everybody cow-towels themselves to these groups, enough people have to change the cultural face of America. There are a number of religious, social, and psychological forces that propel people to public acceptance. None, however, larger than the morally lethal combination of weak religious beliefs and an anemic understanding of what is moral and what is not. Many Americans and weak churches have bought into these sinful doctrines lock, stock, and barrel. It takes unwavering strength and loyalty to uphold God's Word.
Many of us older folks, “Baby Boomers” if you will, look back at the 1960's and either shake our heads or chuckle. A large portion of us were so square, so straight, and narrow we could not even comprehend how the Hippies dared to protest the war. Man, they sure appeared un-American to me! Could this have been the era that 'Group Think' in America began to permeate the political scene with ever-increasing tenacity?
Many who were raised up in the sixties right up to the present day are either stymied or self-consciously constrained by Political Correctness, unable to assert thoughts we believe to be right. Ideologues are not only shushing us up, but actually ostracizing those Christians that try to set the record straight. In matters of God's true religious commands, this has been going on since the days of Christ on earth. Pulling believers in a forever downward spiral. So with this combination of weak religious beliefs melded with ignorance of what is moral and right plus the visual impact of dirty movies and raunchy television, it seemed that general morality and Christian loyalty were beginning their downward spiral.
Here is an inquiry important to this lesson. How can anyone be expected to be loyal and committed to uphold God's Word if one is either ignorant of that Word or barely knows it? The themes being drummed into us from every angle in the world for at least two generations are that there are no moral and spiritual absolutes. This very claim is an absolute falsehood but people choose to believe in those lies. People know they are sinful, but they deliberately choose not to believe in God because they do not want to be restricted nor live a “restricted” life style. They willing indulge in the sins of sex, drugs, and illegal activities. Activities that at first seem wonderful and satisfying but those feelings never last leading them to want to “bump-up” to the next, more destructive, level.
There are indeed moral and spiritual absolutes. Our loyalty to these absolutes, in the face of these ever-strengthening attacks against them, is what is on the line for us. Don't allow yourself to think that your perception of the purity of God's absolutes has not been affected. We all are more jaded than our forefathers. Willing to look the other way rather than speak up when we see something wrong.
Loyalty has two major characteristic traits. The first one is: Knowledge of what's right. We have to have it. Righteousness requires a process of growth that begins when God calls us, thus beginning to reveal the mysteries of God. In one sense it can be established by Psalm 119:172. “My tongue shall speak of Your word: for all Your commandments are righteousness.” Righteousness is doing right. Righteousness is what we are to be loyal to. Turn now to John 14:15 and we will look at the second of the two qualities. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Could anything be clearer?
The second of these two loyalty characteristics is: Devotion. Not only to God but your expressed devotion to YOUR DUTIES. Loyal devotion is not a relaxed version of rules contained in the commandments, but long term dedication to the Father and the Son, two magnificent entities who are loyal to us beyond our imaginations.
Paul used those two principles when he wrote to the Roman congregation to encourage their righteous thinking. Because they thought that they were right, they were puffed up about their own self-righteousness. If they had been righteous, Paul would never have had to clarify the misunderstanding about God's plan and purpose. He did this in three Romans chapters, 9, 10, and 11.
Romans 11:25, “For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits.” That is really as far as I need to go here, because then he starts talking about other subjects
In our lifetime, as individuals, as a Church, as a Nation, we are moving toward the time when we are called upon to examine ourselves and to repent. Repent may not be the precise word. For repent means to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin. Given that, and even adding the promise that we will sin no more, is not enough. Atonement would be a better action that includes reparation for a wrong. Moving forward to repair the wrongs that came about in the first place. Christ did not repent our sin away, he paid the ultimate atoning price. After we repent, we should do our best to make up for lost time with God or our previous shortfalls.
The subject that Paul was addressing was the rather simple principle of loyalty and that each of us must be loyal to God to and to the community. We cannot separate them, as we are going to see as we continue here.
Sometimes we often like to separate loyalty to God from loyalty to our family because we can accept the fact that God is perfect, yet we can't be expected to obey all God's rules. We supply ourselves with all kinds of justifications and rationalizations for not following through with what God says to do.
Much of this lesson so far has revolved around the vast change in American attitudes toward marriage, so I am going to continue to use that as a backdrop, because the instruction given in the Bible regarding subjection shows how we must conduct ourselves in order to be loyal. Now one absolutely cannot be loyal without placing himself or herself in submission to righteousness with devoted affection.
Be warned, what we are going to hear is not easy to do. Loyalty demands a great deal of faith, humility, and self-control. Everyday twenty-four seven. Loyalty is not a part-time job.
Colossians 3:18, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.” The same is true with the marriage roles reversed.
The word "submit" can be translated either "submit" or "subject." If you look in Strong's Concordance you will find that the same Greek word is translated both ways in the King James Version. This particular verse is aimed at women, but unfortunately very, very many men never consider that they too are subject to their wives. And we all are to be loyally committed, loyally submitted to Christ.
Disloyalty will be punished. Because Edom deserted Israel in its time of need we read, "I will bring you plummeting down," said the Lord. (Obadiah 1:4-14.)
We have a tendency to think of submission in less than positive terms. Stop that way of thinking! God does not enslave, He liberates. Submission frees us and it works to produce success in life's endeavors, whether it be work, marriage, athletics, church or whatever. The outstanding example of this is Jesus Himself. In John 8:29, Jesus stated, “that He always did what pleased the Father.” Do you? Jesus was loyal and did what God said to do both in public and private times. Do you?
John 8:31-32, “Then said Jesus, to those Jews which believed in him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Being free is not enslavement. Subjection to God does not demand enslavement. It produces freedom for all eternity. The close linkage between loyalty and submission is inescapable. Loyal subjection to God's truth is what produces true satisfaction and joy in this life.
When the complete picture is revealed, you realize being loyal to Jesus results in an eternity in Heaven, free from bodily death or being tossed into the fiery pit. In the Book of John, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." And then He asked the question: "Believe you this?"
Important Biblical synonyms to Loyalty are; allegiance, devout faith, fidelity, honesty, honor, integrity, obedience, sincerity, trustworthiness, and conscientiousness.
Conversely, loyalty antonyms are; disloyalty, disgrace, dishonesty, dishonor, lying, treachery, faithlessness.
Given these two groupings of words, which most often reflect your choices? Which Team are you on? Following which leader? And, lastly, are you an ardent supporter of God, if so, what are you doing for Him, your neighbors, and enemies on a daily basis?
It is your faith and your loyal actions that matters to our Lord God.
Note: "Loyalty" has been updated by "Christian Loyalty, Revised & Expanded" also available here on Sermon Central.
This lengthier, updated submission was written to give the subject of “Christian Loyalty” a more appropriate reexamination.
