1 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; Psalms 15:1-3 (ESV)
Sharon and I watched a great movie last night on Netflix called “The Kite Runner.” It is about two boyhood friends—Amir, son of a weathy Afgan, and Hassan, who is from a lower class family. When confronted by bullies between giving up Amir’s prized kite or getting beat up, Hassan chose loyalty to his friend and endured the consequences. Amir secretly saw what happened, felt terrible about it, and then grew to despise his friend, betraying him. In spite of this, Hassan continued to be loyal to his friend, and eventually gave his life while protecting Amir’s father’s house.
It is one thing to be loyal to friend, and pay a huge price for that loyalty. But then to be betrayed by that same friend and be loyal a second time to the point of death—that is loyalty not based on phelio love, but on agape love. (Both words are Greek words for love. Phelio is the love between friends because you like them. Agage is unconditional love.)
Is my loyalty to people based on what they do for me? That is shallow. May God help me to live out agape love, for that is what God’s love for me is based on. He loves me, not for what I do for him, but because he has chosen to love me.
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