Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.

  

“Most people will tell you what loyal friends they are, but are they telling you the truth?” (Proverbs 20:6, LB)

 

When it comes down to it, do people even know what loyal friends are and what they look like?  We hear people say that they are loyal and it turns out that it is only when it benefits them.   We see people that break trust all the time, become offended, and/or just wander off for something they see as better in the moment.

 

As an example, when I was young, I hung out with others who were deeply troubled and struggled with addiction.  I thought they were my friends but then would often find them flirting and trying to pick up my boyfriend, stealing from me and or lying behind my back and telling stories about me.   I thought to myself that there was no one that was a genuine trustworthy friend.

 

Often what we flood ourselves with is worldly ways of living that are so distant from God’s ways.   Because of it, we become confused by it and follow every other way but the Lord’s way.   We learn at every turn from what we see that we gain from following our own self-interest and putting others aside to help ourselves get ahead.  We see it with a world flooded with personal ambition.   It is also common that people make the comment when they re-marry that they have “traded up” for someone that better fits who they are today.

 

We lose sight of simple biblical principals such as, “Put yourself aside and help others get ahead.”  Or, Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”   This is why Proverbs 20:7 says, “Stop listening to teaching that contradicts what you know is right.”  TV and media will flood us with wrong ideas. Rather than let it spill and overflow in our lives, we need to infuse ourselves with biblical principles.

 

Loyal friends here had to do with first of all kindness that comes from being in covenant.   It has to do with favor because of an agreement, arrangement or overall alignment that one has.   An example is God’s lovingkindness to us because of a covenant we entered into. 

 

In Exodus 20:4-7 it says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

 

When we become saved, we enter into a covenant with God.   As part of this covenant, we receive the blessings of His lovingkindness and promises to us just because of this relationship and being willing to receive them.  We operate out of this covenant.

 

We also enter into a covenant when we get married.   In this case, we mutually agree to certain vows on how we are going to treat each other, care for each other and be there for each other.   We agree to have a loyalty to our spouse that overrides our other relationship and puts them first, even when things are difficult or we / they are not at our best.

 

When spouses cheat on each other, lie to each other, put others before their spouse, or even walk away from their spouse when the relationship gets difficult or the person is struggling with a health or other issue, they are not being loyal to their covenant.

 

We also see a form of covenant relationship in work.  One agrees to seek the company’s best interest and utilize their gifts to serve the organization.  At the same time, the organization agrees to provide financial support to the employee.   This is why it can be so painful when this is broken.  When the employee betrays seeking the best interest of the organization or the organization terminates the employee after they have invested their best talents for years, it feels like a betrayal.

 

Loyalty also has to do with faithfulness in trustworthiness.   One carries the concerns of the other person in a place of trustful stewardship.  One does not betray the person in exposing them, causing them harm or demonstrates a lack of concern for what is the others.  One looks out for the best interest of another in a consistent fashion that is rooted in honoring and considering them.  

 

Proverbs 3:29 says, “Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he trustfully dwells beside you.”

 

Ruth demonstrates loyalty to Naomi.  In the story of Ruth, when Naomi lost her husband and her sons, she decides to return to Israel.   Sometimes, receiving the blessing of the Lord, we can wonder off.   We move towards something that feels more comfortable and inviting to us than we currently are experiencing, but it does not genuinely benefit us.  Often, we can make our comfort and secured provision our god by chasing after it rather than chasing after God.

 

When Naomi’s heart was broken, she makes the decision to turn back to the blessings she once knew in Israel.  She packed up to return with her two daughters-in-laws.   As she realized that she had nothing to offer them, she changes her mind and suggests they go home.   Orpah agrees while Ruth insists on staying with Naomi.  

 

Ruth demonstrates loyalty to Naomi when she tells her, “Don’t make me leave you, for I want to go wherever you go, and to live wherever you life;  your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God; I want to die where you die, and be buried there.  May the Lord do terrible things to me if I allow anything but death to separate us.”

 

From this relationship, we can see that loyalty is rooted in love.  Loyalty is not acts of kindness out of a rational or following a set of principals, but it is deeply rooted in genuine love for someone. 

 

In the case of Ruth, it was because her loyalty to Naomi and her willingness to glean fields to provide for the two of them that she became noticed by Boaz.    Boaz heard about her and saw this loyal faithfulness.  When Ruth asked why Boaz could be so kind to her, he replied, “I also know about all the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother in your own land and have come here to live among strangers.” (Ruth 2:11)

 

We also see this loyalty when Ruth lays at the feet of Boaz.   He tells her in Ruth 3:10, “For you are being even kinder to Naomi now than before.  Naturally you’d prefer a younger man, even though poor.  But you have put aside your personal desires [so that you can give Naomi an heir by marrying me].”

 

It was because of Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi that Boaz demonstrated such loyalty and faithfulness to Ruth and too her as his wife, giving her also a child.    And this child, nestled in the loving kindness of both their loyalty and covenant commitments, was noted to be in the lineage of David, then of course, to the lineage of Jesus.

 

Lord,   Kiss us again and again, with  Your love that never ends.  Your love is sweeter than wine, it invites us in to all that is divine.   Wrap us up in Your lovingkindness and loyalty.  For that is where we are set free.  Teach us to be loyal and faithful friends and to give away our lives again and again.