Loyalty is a trait seldom mentioned today. Can you remember the last time you heard it discussed? It’s sometimes mentioned in passing, when someone’s committed to a particular political party, brand name, or sports team, but even then it’s often not perceived as a positive thing. Like similar concepts rooted in a distant past, loyalty is considered rather old-fashioned and suspect by most people.

When I was in grade school I had two “best” friends. We were an almost inseparable threesome who did everything together. And most of the time, we got along great. On rare occasions, though, I remember how two of us would inexplicably gang up against the third girl, talking negatively about her behind her back (usually over the phone) and planning things that would exclude her.

Of course this was very hurtful if you happened to be the excluded, third girl! Why we indulged in this kind of behavior is still a mystery to me because we really did like each other. Maybe we got bored with the niceties of good will and wanted to create some drama. Or maybe we just gave in to the “mean girl” temptation. In any case, we somehow managed to patch things up after these brief episodes, but they undermined our shared trust. We paid a price in our otherwise exceptional relationship with each other every time they occurred because, as Proverbs 16:28 says, “A whisperer separates chief friends.”

The trouble was, at that age we didn’t understand the importance of being loyal to one another, to be “unswerving in allegiance” as one dictionary describes it. Loyalty isn’t some noble abstraction that’s carried out with a stiff upper lip. It isn’t a cold, calculating response to a situation. The truth is, genuine loyalty springs out of deep love and affection. You could almost interchange the word love as it’s described in 1 Corinthians 13 with loyalty—both are patient and kind. They don’t envy or boast. They aren’t proud, rude, or self-seeking. They’re not easily angered and keep no record of wrongs. They don’t delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. “It [love or loyalty] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (v. 7).

It’s impossible to remain loyal to something or someone without a strong motivator like love. In order to remain loyal to you, your well-being has to be as important to me as my own … and that’s a pretty good description of what love in action looks like. It’s what Jesus called “loving your neighbor as yourself.” On the other hand, if I don’t care about how my behavior will impact you, then I can trample on your rights, your dignity, and your feelings when it suits me without feeling much guilt at all.

One of the most touching accounts of loyalty in Scripture is Mephibosheth. The son of Jonathan, David’s dearest friend, he was dropped as an infant and as a result was crippled in both feet. Living out his life in Lo Debar, in poverty and misery, he likely felt things would never change for the better. In fact, it could get a whole lot worse, he realized, if King David ever found out where he was hiding because being from the household of Saul, Mephibosheth would be considered a threat to David’s rule.

Then the unthinkable happened. David did hunt him down, but not to kill him … to move him into the palace to eat at his table as one of his family (see 2 Samuel 9). It was an act of grace – undeserved favor because of David’s loyalty to Jonathan and his promise to show kindness to Jonathan’s offspring. Mephibosheth knew he was the recipient of something amazing he hadn’t earned and consequently was fiercely loyal to the king.

When David had to flee for his life because of his son Absalom’s rebellion, Mephibosheth wanted nothing more than to go with him. But being physically unable to saddle his donkey and leave on his own, he was totally dependent upon his servant Ziba to help him join David.

In an inexplicable act of disloyalty, Ziba decided to turn on his master and seize all the properties David had given Mephibosheth for himself by lying about him. Sadly, David believed what Ziba told him: that Mephibosheth was happy about David’s exile, saying “Today the house of Israel will give me back my grandfather’s kingdom” (2 Samuel 16:3).

King David didn’t know how loyal Mephibosheth was until he returned to the palace after Absalom’s death. I’m sure David was shocked to see his condition— “he had not taken care of his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he returned safely” (2 Samuel 19:24). Far from wanting the kingdom for himself, Mephibosheth had put his own life on hold while he anxiously awaited the king’s safe return as ruler.

David’s welfare mattered to Mephibosheth; he chose to put his own needs aside until they were reunited. Now that’s loyalty! Once David understood that Ziba had lied to him about Mephibosheth’s character, he was quick to try to make amends, offering to restore some of the property given to Ziba back to Mephibosheth. But Mephibosheth refused to see his joy dimmed by focusing on such unimportant matters as property. He declares to David, “Let him [Ziba] take everything now that my lord the king has arrived home safely” (2 Samuel 19:30).

Mephibosheth explains why he can overlook Ziba’s treachery, as unfair as it may have been.  “All my grandfather’s descendants deserved nothing but death from my lord the king, but you gave your servant a place among those who sat at your table. So what right do I have to make any more appeals to the king?” (v. 28). David’s mercy towards Mephibosheth was enough to make him a loyal friend forever.

Do we exhibit this kind of loyalty to our King? He is perfectly faithful in His dealings with us and always acts with love on our behalf, yet we sometimes slander Him in order to feel better about ourselves. When we are betrayed by others, like Mephibosheth was, will we continue to be loyal to the One who invited us, His one-time enemies, to sit at His table and enjoy the benefits of being part of His family? Or will we let disappointments distract us and pull our affections away from Him?

Unswerving allegiance and devotion to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will carry us through difficult times and please the heart of our Father. Oswald Chambers in one of his essays asks the pertinent question for us to consider as we look into our hearts, to see if they are as loyal to Jesus as Mephibosheth was to King David. “The question is, will the child of God in the ‘in between’ of this life where sin and Satan are rampant, remain true to God when everything is going contrary to what he believes God’s character to be?”

Jesus said that the one who is forgiven much loves much. And John the apostle writes that we love because He first loved us. But, as the 16^th century mystic Theresa of Avila wrote, “I wonder if most of us even know what spiritual love is. It does not mean that we experience greater emotional delights. It means that, because we see God as He is, we experience a stronger resolve to please Him – in fact, an unquenchable desire to please Him no matter what.”

Loyalty to God can be costly at times—it may inconvenience us or even cause us pain at times. We may be misunderstood and ridiculed by those who don’t know our King. But the disciple with a loyal heart cares little about that. His joy is rooted in the knowledge that one day his glorious King will return and make all things right. Till then, he watches and waits for His return, living for Him with unswerving allegiance.

If, like Mephibosheth, I can remember where I could have been and what could have happened to me if my King had not intervened with His grace, I will be the kind of servant that the Lord Jesus can rely on. I will live for Him and remain true to Him even when my life isn’t going as I’d like it to.

Loyalty springs out of love and gratitude, knowing that “to Him I owe my life and breath and all the joys I have.” Can He rely on our loyalty and steadfast love no matter what, or will we display a kind of fair-weather allegiance that ebbs and flows according to what we’re currently going through?

Let me quote Chambers again: “Loyalty to God and to God’s children is the supreme test in the life of a saint. Wherever you meet with difficulties, whether they are intellectual or circumstantial or physical, remain loyal to God. Don’t compromise. If you do, everyone around you will suffer from your faithlessness. [If you] remain loyal to God and to His saints in private and in public, you will find that not only are you continually with God, but that God is counting on you.” An awesome thought – that God would count on mere men in His kingdom!

I love the last line of this old hymn below. Sometimes we may wish that we had more than one heart – that way, we could give one to our Savior and one to our spouse and one to our career, maybe one to our political heroes or one to a dear friend … you get the idea. A heart for every area of our lives that competes for our loyalty. But this songwriter knows how utterly unique our relationship with Jesus Christ is. He declares that if he had a thousand hearts, all of them would belong to his King.