Unhealthy Loyalty

Hey, what's up? This is Tim Pratt Jr. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this content today. I hope you hear something that adds value to your life, shaping your perspective, faith, and hope, as well as the application to see and do in this thing that we call life. Enjoy. What's up everybody? So this will be a short episode. I just really want to put something on your mind. I don't even know if this one is going to go over 5 or 6 minutes, if that. But I want to talk to you about unhealthy loyalty, and it's just like I say, something to just kind of gauge your perspective and challenge it, because we throw that word out there so loosely, you know, especially when I was coming up. It was loyal to the game, loyal to your friends, loyalty over everything, and so on and so on. And so from a biblical standpoint, yes, I believe in loyalty, but I believe that it has to be in the proper context of loyal to Christ first. Because it will always put things in proper perspective. And without that, it will lead to the title of this episode, I call— like to call Unhealthy Loyalty. And so, for example, before I get into the main concept that I want you to just kind of go study and unpack, and like I say, just challenge your paradigm, I never would want to just— especially at this point deceive my wife, to deceive me. I mean it in terms of basically not be loyal to our marriage, to me, and, you know, just the things I do, and vice versa. You know, you can talk about our parents and all of that, but at the same time, if I was in the wrong where I was about to do something that would destroy my life, I wouldn't want my wife to say, because of our relationship and my loyalty, I'm not going to tell you the truth. And this is where it gets dangerous when we purely remain loyal to people, even in our relationships, without keeping it, like I say, in this proper context. So think about David and Bathsheba. So when you read 2 Samuel 11, we understand that story. You know, David, he sees Bathsheba and he sends for her, just paraphrasing, long story short, sleeps with her. And you know, that's basically his best soldier's wife, you know, Uriah. And once David does this, you know, and he realizes she's pregnant and stuff, he tries to get Uriah to basically, you know, sleep with his wife. And Uriah won't do it because, you know, the loyalty to the soldiers. And just on and on and on. Like I said, I'm paraphrasing it and really trying to make it more appropriate to culture. And so now you have this dynamic where you have Joab, and Joab is very loyal to David. And so David, you know, uh, Joab gives David a full report of what's going on. And so this leads to David sending Uriah through Joab on the front line. It's a suicide mission because now, you know, David, he just can't accept personal responsibility. And, you know, it's going to get into that whole dynamic with the prophet coming and, you know, basically it's going to be exposure because he's going to be talking— that is, Nathan is going to be talking about, like, basically he's going to be talking about a scenario and then he's going to be like, it's you, David. But that's, like I said, a whole nother perspective right now. The dynamic that I want to focus on is that why didn't Joab challenge David on that? You know, clearly a true friend in that situation, whether it was a lack of discernment or he just didn't want to see it. But at the end of the day, he was so loyal to the point that he didn't have it filtered through the lens of Christ, that it almost— his loyalty almost played a part in destroying David's life. And this is not to absolve David of his personal responsibility in it, but what I'm trying to basically draw out by the power of God is that we have to put things in this proper perspective. You know, as Jesus' disciples we demonstrate our loyalty through the self-sacrifice, like self-sacrifice and allegiance to following him. It's following Christ. I mean, show me anywhere in the scriptures where Jesus' loyalty was basically— how do I want to say this— where— show me anywhere in the scriptures that he wasn't loyal. But at the same time, his loyalty didn't basically lead people on like self-destruction is what I'm basically trying to communicate. And so with us, you know, saying, like I say, in the friendships and dynamics, I just really want you to think about that, you know. What does that look like for you? Like I told you, and my wife or my friends and things like that, you know, when I was growing up and like especially I was trying to be, you know, loyal to, loyal to certain people that I really admire, and I was like, man, I don't ever want to really challenge him, especially when I was trying to be mentored. You know, you can get into this dynamic with your work relationships and so on and so on. We often compromise, man, our values, because it's like that person has such a strong tie to us through the, the power of loyalty. So it's like, you know, if you tell your friend the truth, you say, man, I'm not in that, it's kind of— you question like, well, I thought it was loyalty over everything. So what are you doing to make sure that your loyalty is filtered right? Because I do believe that you can be, like I say, loyal and also not be destructive. I hope that makes sense. So like I said, this was a short episode. The last two, I promise you, you know, I'm gonna like, uh, really get into some content, kind of more like of a message. And just to be straight up with you, I've been working on this one called I Got Insight, but I'm gonna probably reflect over the next two days and I'm gonna pray because I really want the Lord to, like I say, just flow and use me as I basically communicate through this podcast. But in the context of this episode, that's what I really want you to think about. And then maybe kicking off season 3, you know, I've been inspired by Darius Daniels. He's been doing a series called Put People in Their Place, and it's dealing with relational intelligence, which is his book. It's, uh, it's about to drop if it hasn't already. And so, uh, and I might need to check because I have it pre-ordered. But with that being said, um, just really think about that. Like, is my loyalty unhealthy?