Loyalty

From the Pastor’s Study                                    

Loyalty                                 

March 16, 2022

Loyalty is voluntary.  “Brand loyalty” is commitment to a particular brand, be it John Deere, Samsung or Kellogg’s.   Companies work hard to earn our loyalty, but loyalty is something we give voluntarily.  We become convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the brand to which we are loyal is the best, and we would never think of buying a similar product of another brand.  We determine which brands will have our loyalty.

Becoming loyal is something we determine to do ourselves, but in being loyal we give up some of our freedom.  Loyalty limits our choices, for we can no longer choose from all the options before us.  For example, if you are completely loyal to Kellogg’s breakfast cereal, you will never be able to eat Honeycomb cereal which is manufactured by Post, a long-term rival of Kellogg’s.  Being loyal implies that we can no longer be fully self-determining meaning that we cannot do whatever we want.

That loyalty restricts our freedom to do whatever we want is not surprising if we know the history of the word.  “Loyal” and “legal” come from the same root word which are both related to another word, “law.” Over time “legal” came to refer to the written code of the law while “loyal” referred more to the code of honour.  To be loyal, then, is to obey the laws of honour, laws which may vary from culture to culture, but which are fully understood within each culture, even if they have never been written down.  To be loyal, then, is to submit oneself to an unwritten system of laws, although, in contrast to the legal code of law, there is normally no punishment for a lack of loyalty, unless you are a gangster. 

In western culture we are losing our sense of loyalty. Perhaps this is because we are living at a time when self-determination is one of the highest goals to which we can attain.  (Think of the advertisements for lotteries which tempt us to think that with the winnings of the big lottery we can finally do whatever we would like without constraint.  We are led to believe that then we will be truly happy because we can do anything we like.)  Loyalty, like limited financial resources, restricts our ability to make choices that are completely unrestrained, and, like other limiting factors, is readily abandoned.

In the Reformed tradition, we believe that we come to faith in Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to turn us to him.  We become Christians because of God’s work in our lives.  That being said, God does not force us to be loyal once we are saved.  Rather, he gives us freedom to be loyal if we so choose.  To be loyal to God means that we restrain ourselves to serving him alone, and it means that we abide by his values, principles, and laws.  When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we know that we are saved from sin and the resulting punishment, and we can say, further, that we will not be punished for disloyalty.  We don’t view the laws of God, then, in the same way as we view the laws of our land but, rather, as more of an honour code. To obey God is much more in the realm of loyalty than it is in the legal realm.

As Christians we are not immune to the culture in which we live.  Because our culture states that self-determination and freedom of choice are among the highest values, we can easily come to believe the same.  Freedom in Christ, for many Christians, becomes freedom to do anything we please when, in reality, the opposite is true.  When we are in Christ, we are invited to become loyal to him, and loyalty, although voluntary, restricts freedom.  It is possible to believe in Jesus Christ, and not be entirely loyal, and all of us must admit that we are sometimes disloyal.  Many times we fail to honour the code set in place by God which is fulfilled and confirmed in Jesus Christ.  A true believer seeks to avoid disloyalty even if there are no penalties or punishments for being disloyal.

Loyalty is voluntary, but it is restricting.  Still, it is good for us.  When we practice brand loyalty, we do so because we think we are loyal to the best product available.  We voluntarily give up our freedoms to have the best.  We may be misled with loyalty to a brand, but we will never be misled with loyalty to Jesus Christ.  Restricting ourselves to his values, principles and laws ensures that we do experience the best.

Pastor Gary