Loyalty as defined by Merriam Webster online dictionary: a loyal feeling: a feeling of strong support for someone or something.
When someone has been there for you it is natural to develop feelings of loyalty towards them. It's a part of human nature and most people can agree that loyalty feels good. Especially when you have no way of paying them back for what they have done for you. Sometimes our interpretation of what was done for us can become exaggerated in our own minds. For example, if you are receiving care from a medical professional you can ascribe loyalty to those people. You are grateful for what they did because you were too sick to do it for yourself. In reality, they were doing their job, their chosen profession. They made the choice to help people.
If you somehow develop a need for food stamps and governmental assistance, you can look at the person approving your application for this assistance with an undeserved type of loyalty. The person approving your application was merely doing their job. Sometimes these people are caring and are concerned about helping people but the reality again is that they are doing their job. Sometimes people get caught behind situations and circumstances where they are caught up in government red tape. Someone comes along and clears that red tape and the person receives the breakthrough that they need. A person can become loyal to this person unnecessarily. The person doing their job is not looking for your loyalty but somehow people give loyalty away to those who do not deserve it.
There are times in your life where loyalty can be misplaced. The situation you were in was possibly hopeless and you were helpless to render aid to yourself. One must be careful in this type of situation to not ascribe inappropriate levels of loyalty to those who are just merely doing their job. This is going to sound cold and calloused but I need for you to see this from a different perspective. I am not asking you to develop a strong feeling of entitlement, dependency, and arrogance when someone is helping. What I am saying is that you should be extremely careful that you are not deeding your loyalty to someone who is undeserving of that loyalty.
Many Democrats are loyal to the Party for reasons that are very personal to them. This is understandable and as a person who is trying to understand why people are loyal when they shouldn't be. I would like for you to consider that the emotions are a very tricky and sometimes deceptive animal that needs careful scrutiny. For years people of color have been loyal to the Democrat Party because family tradition told them that Granddad and Grandmom received some benefit that helped the family survive during a time of hardship. This misplaced loyalty has kept many people of color in a place of compromise.
This compromise came from not understanding that the assistance they received was not out of compassion for the person or individual, or for compassion's sake but it was their job to do certain tasks as obligated by their position of employment. This often becomes clouded by emotions and what many people of color are failing to see is that the person that represents the “Party” that they have ascribed loyalty too is no more concerned about them or their loyalty. They are in affect just using this people. This is no laughing matter. Loyalty should be earned. Loyalty should not be given away on a whim. Loyalty should be considered a special gift that is given to those who really deserve it.
Those who are loyal must guard against compromising what they really believe in for the sake of loyalty. David and Jonathan provide an excellent example of loyalty in the Bible.
15 So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in a forest. 16 Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. 17 And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.” 18 So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house. I Samuel 23: 15 – 18 {NKJV}
Jonathan was next in line to King Saul’s throne genetically by birthright. Jonathan could have easily compromised what he believed by his loyalty to his father, King Saul. Jonathan did not do this. Jonathan stayed true to his belief that David would be king one day. When you look at this in the natural Jonathan’s loyalty should have went to his father, but God had another plan. Jonathan had to decide who he was going to be more loyal too, David who was not his flesh and blood or his father, who was his flesh and blood. There is no doubt that King Saul loved Jonathan and vice versa but the plan of God was at work here. Jonathan was called to honor the relationship with David about the relationship with his father.
When making decisions of whom you should be loyal too, you should always follow the Spirit of God. Many people are following the dictates of the “Party” that they know because of family tradition. They are unwilling to change or even consider new evidence, and this causes them to compromise what they really believe. Jonathan could have compromised and been loyal to his father but that was not the will of God for him or David. True loyalty should never lead to compromise. People are compromising biblical truths and standards because they feel that they need to be loyal.
Selah
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