Church of God, New World Ministries

What Is Loyalty?

Why is loyalty such a vital characteristic that we, as members of God’s true Church, must be developing?

Few and fewer people can really be trusted. In general it seems mankind is becoming more disloyal and unfaithful every day.

Politicians are known for preelection promises which somehow never seem to be honored once in office. It’s a rare thing for someone in office to be loyal to the voters who elected him or her.

National governments are no better than the politicians-- peace treaties are only made to be broken. But why is this? Because of selfish interests, nations reserve the right to break a treaty when it suits them.

The Book of Proverbs sums it up in chapter 20:6: This is from the Moffatt translation: “Many a person is called nice, but a trustworthy (loyal) man is a rare find.”

But contrasted to man, our Great God can be trusted. We can rely on His many promises. Notice Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”

We can be sure that God will not break His word to give us eternal life. “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.”

Now, let’s get back to us! When we were baptized, we also made a promise to God: “know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4).

When you and I were baptized this is what we agreed to do. To forsake our own ways and lead a new life in obedience to all God’s Commandments. Now, as time has gone by, how many of us have forgotten to be loyal to that agreement?

Has Satan, broadcasting to all people as he does, persuaded us to be disloyal to God and His laws, just a little bit, convincing us it isn’t all that important if you don’t need to keep every principle of God’s law.

If this has happened to some of us, don’t’ expect God to feel bound to keep His part of the agreement.

Loyalty goes far beyond simple honesty. God has called us to do a job. Loyalty on our part means putting our hearts and efforts into that job.

“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die; and thou gives him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity: but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezk. 3:17-19).

The Church today is like a modern-day Ezekiel, commanded to take a message to the people and show them the way out of their misery and on into the New World to come.

This stern warning applies to God’s Church! If any of us are disloyal in the responsibility God has given us, be it paying tithes, offerings and prayers, God says we are preventing His warning message from reaching more people, we are being disloyal to His Work.

It is imperative that we remain loyal to God’s Work to remain on His team. We are all in this great Work together, we must all work together as a team. If any one of us lets down, we hold back and affect the whole team.

Loyalty to God’s Work means diligence as well. God counts half-heartedness as disloyalty. “Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord negligently” (Jere. 48:10).

So if we miss out on praying daily, studying the Bible diligently, looking for ways to serve, then it is the same as being disloyal to the Work of God.

Many eons ago a great archangel became disloyal to his Creator and tried to usurp God’s authority and position. As a result, Lucifer was cast down and soon will be dismissed from his governmental office.

Similarly, no Christians who are disloyal or unfaithful may quality for a positon in God’s future government. You and I must prove our loyalty to God in every aspect of our lives now. God must know we will remain loyal to Him for eternity.

God will not have any potential adversaries in His family, so we must prove here and now that we will never follow the path that Satan took.

God is loyal to us. He won’t let us down. He promises in Proverbs 28:20: “A faithful (or loyal) man shall abound with blessings.” If we remain loyal we will inherit those blessings.

 
Want to know more?
  1. Enroll in our correspondence course Request the FREE correspondence by clicking here
  2. Sign up for our monthly DVD Sermon program Request the FREE monthly sermon DVD's by clicking here
  3. Subscribe to our mailing list Request to be added to the mailing list by clicking here
They are all free, there are NO strings attached and we DO NOT solicit for money.
 
  Web Site Artwork Credits
© 2024 Church of God, New World Ministries
P.O. Box 770 New Tazewell, TN 37824       (423) 626-0553