Wednesday-June 3-Exodus 23-Jerry Bridges

Unswerving Loyalty

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

(Proverbs 17:17)

The faithful person is not only honest and dependable but also loyal. The issue of loyalty arises most often in connection with our friends. The word has come to have a connotation of sticking with someone through thick and thin. There’s no such person as a fair-weather friend. If a person’s loyalty doesn’t ensure his faithfulness to another in times of stress, he really isn’t a friend—he’s simply using the other person to satisfy his own social needs.

Jonathan provides probably the Bible’s best illustration of loyalty. His friendship with David almost cost him his life at the hands of his own father. Amazingly, Jonathan realized that his loyalty to David would, in the end, cost him the throne of Israel. Such faithfulness is frequently a costly virtue. Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to pay that price.

We must avoid, however, a so-called “blind loyalty” that refuses to admit a friend’s mistakes or faults. Proverbs 27:6 tells us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Only the truly faithful friend cares enough about us to undertake the often thankless task of pointing out where we’re wrong. None of us enjoys being confronted with our faults, so we often make it difficult for our friends to do so. As a result, most of us are more concerned about speaking agreeableness to each other than about speaking the truth. This is not loyalty. Loyalty speaks the truth in faithfulness but also in love. Loyalty says, “I care enough about you that I will not allow you to continue unchecked in your wrong action or sinful attitude that will ultimately be harmful to you.”