Skip to main content

Loyalty & Treason

Over the years I have periodically thought about loyalty. I am thinking about it again. In my earlier thinking, I came to the conclusion that the word was a bad word and the practice was a bad practice.

Loyalty causes things like millions of people giving strong adherence to, and following of people, like Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, and causing the premature death of hundreds of millions of people. And the people who were loyal thought it was a good thing.

Loyalty causes people to say, “I was born a Methodist, I will die a Methodist”, even though the Holy Spirit may have left the Methodist church a hundred years ago.

Loyalty causes people to say, “South High School in Omaha is the best high school because I go to South High.

Loyalty is taught in nations, churches, and schools. In military units, it is called “Espirit de corps.”

Pep rallies help it along, Martial music helps it along.

We have a problem with what I have just written. That is, the opposite of loyalty, is treason and treason is bad. A traitor is an evil person.

If I remember correctly, here is a quotation from the Merchant of Venice.

“The man who has no music in his soul is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.” That is not scripture, but it gives a worldly view of treason. It is not good.

Jeremiah was considered a traitor by the king and the people. He was the only one obedient to God.

Dietrich Bonheoffer was executed as a traitor because he was in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

If loyalty is bad and treason is bad, then there must be something else.

Comments

Grace said…
I love reading your posts, Mr. Wilson! Thank you for the wise & thoughtful teachings...

Popular posts from this blog

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a

Getting Old

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have

Three Types of People Christians Aren't Loving

There are three types of people in the world that Christians do not love with the Gospel . The first type are the people we witness to but do not love. The second type are the unbelievers that we do not witness to. The third are people we love but do not witness to. That sounds like doubletalk. Let’s change it. 1) We witness to people we love. 2) We love everybody and witness to them with love. As Christians, we have the fruit of the Spirit—love. We are commanded to love our neighbors and our enemies. The first thing is to have the love. The second is to choose to love our neighbors and enemies. Sometimes we can’t make the choice because we have lost the fruit of the Spirit, love. We lack the fruit of the Spirit of love because we are under the chastening of the Lord because of unconfessed sin. In order to get the love back, we must confess sin. Once we get the love back, we can choose to love our neighbors and enemies and preach the gospel to them.   Written December 22,