Chaplain’s Corner
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Loyalty Versus Integrity
Good morning, patriots!
Today’s blog is based on a conversation that I had recently with my Uncle, who had recently lost his dear wife to cancer after battling it for 17 years. We were talking about her and remembering what a truly good, genuine, loving person she was. He made a comment that I had never really considered. He said that she had two qualities that were outstanding. She had loyalty and integrity. His point was that without the second quality (integrity) the first one would not really have mattered. Her integrity was being true to herself and her God-given conscience. It wasn’t something she had been taught or learned, it was an integral part of who she was as a person. She was a woman of faith and followed a common religious denomination, but his point was that her denominational loyalty was not the hallmark of her life... it was her integrity.
That really got me to thinking about our lives today and how we view these two characteristics. Loyalty is seen as a virtue, and probably rightly so. However, it has its limitations in a moral life. If I had to pick one or the other, I would pick integrity as my virtue, and I think that by default, I would be imbued with the correct type of loyalty as a byproduct of that virtue.
Loyalty sounds good and righteous until you really start to examine the possibilities of unrestricted, unregulated, or uneducated loyalty. If we are the sort of people who hold fast to our relationship with the Sovereign of the universe, then we have to have a moral standard of integrity that blossoms from inside, and is reflected in our everyday life. If we love what is good, moral, righteous, and of Him Who created us, then we will allow Him to shape us and form us to be the types of people He desires us to be. That is the function of our Bible-trained conscience, which guides us daily in our walk through life. Having a conscience that is very sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit will be a virtue that will help us to walk the walk as we talk the talk.
For example, a person can have a blind loyalty to a friend or family member. They may even say, “My family, right or wrong.” That sounds very positive and loyal until you start to think about it. Does your loyalty to family or friends supersede your integrity? You know it is morally wrong to steal, murder, etc. If a family member is guilty of a crime, are you going to lie and cheat to cover for them? Is loyalty to them at this point the right thing to do? Or is personal moral integrity the better option?
Loyalty to God can be sometimes confused with loyalty to a man-made religious structure and their cultural rules of conduct. When someone plows into a crowded sidewalk with a truck, killing and injuring innocent people, shouting “Allahu Akbar” while doing so, are we to applaud his great sense of “loyalty to God?” Or is killing innocent people due to a warped and misguided understanding of God perhaps an evil thing, regardless of the sense of loyalty to the purpose?
Now, here is a harder one. A little closer to home. If you are loyal to a religious denomination that calls for you to shun or turn your back on family members simply for disagreeing on Biblical interpretation, are you going to be loyal to that religious organization, thinking that, somehow that equals loyalty to God? Or will your personal integrity and relationship with Him cause you to show love for your family and/or close friends even if you have to agree to disagree with their choices? I am not saying that you should encourage or gloss over bad behavior or outright sin. I am not saying you should jump on the bandwagon and support or advocate for things that you feel are morally wrong. I am simply saying that when a friend or family member makes a decision to step away from the boundaries that we have surrounded ourselves with in life, the question is: how will I treat them? To tell them how you feel, to try to win them back to your way of thinking would be a loving thing to do, showing your love and concern for them. However, being told that you cannot have them in your home, talk with them, or even eat a meal with them without participating in their sin, is beyond ludicrous. You can show family love to someone and express it in many practical ways without being guilty of advocating for their choices in life, even when you do not agree with those choices.
So, does this include what we like to call, “tough love?” Yes, it does. Remember that to constantly be supportive of someone and making it easier for them to remain stuck in a bad situation is called enabling, and is not showing real love for them. If your child has a drug problem, dealing with the problem and getting them help is the way to show them real love. To keep bending to their pleas for help financially or in other ways, without addressing the core issue of their addiction, is not showing true love. Sometimes saying “No” is the most loving thing you can do for a person.
So, the key to this discussion is the underlying motive for how you live your life. If you truly love God and want to be reflective of His empowering love in this life, then have the integrity that comes with that relationship. Be willing to show loyalty to Him, by having personal integrity in your daily life, and reflect Him as much as possible, even when it may appear that you are being “disloyal” to someone or something in the process. Stand for good, moral, righteous principles in life. Train, develop, and follow a Godly conscience in this ungodly world we live in. And maybe, just maybe, your example will stand out and shine and cause pause for thought in others who observe you and your life, actions, and convictions.
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” - Philippians 2: 15 KJV
God bless you, every one, and:
God Bless America!
Stephen King
Chaplain@3upi.com
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