The whole of human history is decided on the choice between loyalty to, or betrayal of, God.
Life is real and its challenges are often convoluted. Some of the most difficult of these to face are the cross-currents of competing loyalties. A “contention” so “sharp” that it separated Barnabas and Paul in Acts 15 comes to mind. In this episode, we find Jonathan wrestling with what seems an impossible situation, complicated by his unswerving loyalty. The prince loved David “as his own soul,” but he also showed strong fidelity to his father, a devotedness that would cost him his life on the slopes of Gilboa. Jonathan wanted to think the best of his father, and told David so: “By no means! You shall not die! Indeed, my father will do nothing either great or small without first telling me…It is not so!” (1 Sam 20:2). Sometimes love is blind, isn’t it? Because it was so, and Jonathan would soon discover that. David also had been stalwart towards Saul, but such loyalty had not been returned. One thing greatly helped: both men were supremely loyal to the Lord. This is the golden key. If two people, no matter what seems to padlock their future happiness, will pledge their first loyalty to God, they will find that He has a solution in the long term, no matter what the short-term difficulties may be. If we can both say “No!” to our personal agendas and “Yes!” to God’s way, whatever the consequences, He will show us a path to victory. As the New Testament Saul explains, “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded…Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself…Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Php 2:2-3, 5). The secret of being like-minded is being lowly-minded, and the secret of being lowly-minded is being Lordly-minded.