Loyalty

Loyalty is defined as "faithful adherence to one's promise, oath, word of honour, etc.; conjugal faithfulness, fidelity. Faithful adherence to the lawful government; loyalty oath U.S., an oath, usually mandatory, required of a prospective public employee or other person in which he swears to abstain from subversive activities." To be loyal is defined as "to be unswerving in allegiance, and implies a faithfulness that is steadfast in the face of any temptation to renounce, desert, or betray."

Your exercise of loyalty reveals that with which you identify. Loyalty to God is the first Commandment. Loyalty is an absolute principle; God is loyal to His Creation. Your loyalty is inseparable from your honor and integrity. Loyalty is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being and doing, a Via Christa Degree and a soul virtue.

Edna Lister on Loyalty

Your spiritual advance is judged by your faithfulness and loyalty to God and His law. – Edna Lister, July 25, 1938.

Be loyal and true, abiding always in charity and love. – Edna Lister, August 22, 1938.

Loyalty to God is our first Commandment. Live all it teaches: "To love honor above all things." – Edna Lister, September 6, 1938.

You must possess seven qualities in full measure to attain honor: purity, humility, compassion, empathy, loyalty, sincerity and gratitude. You must live honorably with loyalty to principle, to God and integrity of soul. – Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension, 1941.

Loyalty is the greatest of virtues you can have on earth. – Edna Lister, March 12, 1941.

Your full loyalty is to God, not man. Loyalty to country is next to loyalty to God. – Edna Lister, April 29, 1948.

Loyalty to principle is honor. When you are loyal to God's principles, you cannot act dishonorably toward one of His creations. You have nothing to fear when you give your loyalty to God or to principle. You honor God as personality, and are loyal to God as principle. – Edna Lister, Wearing Your Armor, November 15, 1953.

As you ascend to the heights in ascension, you realize that you must live under absolute honor and loyalty and by absolute truth. If you can be untruthful to someone to cover something up, you are dishonorable to God, and are on the skids. If you reach a point where you must do something, you can remain silent by entering the golden silence. – Edna Lister, Go Preach the Gospel, July 22, 1956.

A "simple faith" is compounded of honor, loyalty, and joy. – Edna Lister, The Way, Your Path, October 14, 1956.

Honor and loyalty are your first requisites in devotion to God. The world's stubborn agnosticism is an inverted form of honor and loyalty. If you manage to convince a resolute agnostic about God, he later will be just as determined in his loyalty to God. – Edna Lister, Your Devotion to God, December 16, 1956.

Obedience to law will bring you to a state of honor, loyalty, integrity and consideration above all things. Loyalty is steadfast allegiance to law, to become legal. You are loyal to your Source if you have honor, though you may not count the small loyalties on earth as parts of this. You become loyal if you stand with allegiance to absolute truth, as a creator of harmony who can stand in the midst of disharmony and say, "This is the truth," with deep love and respect for God. Remain in your golden silence, and pray in selflessness and unconquerable faith, if you cannot speak truth. – Edna Lister, God Is a Gentleman, September 29, 1957.

Honor and loyalty mate and the first born are integrity and consideration in action. – Edna Lister, September 30, 1957.

Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. – Colossians 1:10. To "walk worthy" implies honor and loyalty to principle that leaves you unshakable. – Edna Lister, Desire Is Your Glory, June 14, 1959.

Honor above all things and loyalty to God are fundamental laws and absolutely necessary principles. Your philosophy of life depends on how you interpret and apply the principles and laws you have learned on earth. – Edna Lister, Your Philosophy of Freedom, June 28, 1959.

Justice is stainless honor of soul above all, expressed as loyalty to God as your Source first before earthly loyalties. – Edna Lister, What Is Symbolism? October 6, 1959.

You live by justice, honor and loyalty, but there are many degrees of loyalty. – Edna Lister, December 14, 1959.

Under a challenge, you may make a statement of truth, but if you look back in doubt and fear, you are disloyal to God; the Power of Light can make anything right. You cannot count yourself as faithful when you are disloyal to the Master. If you don't say, "This is Good," and remain loyal to it, you cut your own lines of Light. There is no belief or faith without loyalty backing honor and integrity. Honor, loyalty and integrity are the Son of Energy in action. – Edna Lister, Loyalty, Your Chief Officer, April 15, 1962.

Truth is a quality of the soul, a combination of the soul's honor, loyalty and integrity acting through the individual. – Edna Lister, True Thought Forms Your Ideals and Desires, September 9, 1962.

You may not set aside the high principles of honor, loyalty and integrity to pander to personal desires of the little self. – Edna Lister, True Thought Forms Your Ideals and Desires, September 9, 1962.

Honor, loyalty and integrity must be your watchwords. – Edna Lister, November 29, 1962.

The laws are still the same and they are honor above all things, loyalty, integrity of intention that includes obedience to law beyond the world's ability to comprehend, and attention to the slightest detail. – Edna Lister, July 24, 1963.

Honor, loyalty and integrity are the fruits of self-discipline and self-sacrifice. – Edna Lister, August 15, 1963.

A principled person must live honorably with loyalty to principle, to God and integrity of soul. – Edna Lister, God as Principle Applied under Logic and Reason, November 5, 1963.

Your sincerity and loyalty are your protection; you must be loyal to your principles. – Edna Lister, Love, Your Radar, November 17, 1963.

You cannot explain honor, loyalty or integrity to one who does not know the Universal Father. – Edna Lister, Omnipresence, the Father's Primacy, November 24, 1964.

You cannot have faith without loyalty. – Edna Lister, How Great Is Your Faith? November 13, 1966.

Morality means to live by loyalty to God, and honor toward God and man. – Edna Lister, The Great Modern Problem, November 12, 1967.

Treatment for Inspiring Loyalty

"From this hour forth I shall spend my life doing and practicing on earth what the love of God, what the faith of God, what the full honor of God, what the full loyalty to God dictates to me." – Edna Lister, June 26, 1951.

An Essay on Loyalty

Dr. Sandra R. Gustavson essay on Loyalty; January 11, 2006. Sandra became a student of Edna Lister's work in the very early 1970s, later serving as a teacher and as editor of the Society's newsletter. Sandra held a BA in Sociology, and an MA and PhD in Business Administration.

An essay is a written composition exposing the author's own views on a subject, often focusing on a particular aspect of that subject. An essay often lacks the formality of other forms and is more personal in its tone. This essay reflects my conception of Loyalty, based on Edna Lister's work contained on the Via Christa website as well as the Master's words in Matthew 25 and John 14.

My essay is a collection of reflections on Loyalty. It includes my own personal reflections and introspection on the subject as well as reflections on Loyalty as described in various writings on the website and in the Bible. My essay concludes with a personal questionnaire on Loyalty.

An Observer. I feel like an observer to Loyalty. In preparation for writing this essay, I read all references on the website resulting from a search on the word. As I read each, I was conscious of an abyss between my perception of Loyalty and the reality of the word. I could see across the abyss to the golden, brilliant light of Loyalty, but it remained beyond me.

This feeling of being apart from the Loyalty, i.e., its existence in Truth, held through my reading all the references: when Loyalty was used on its own, and when it was used as part of a trinity: Honor, Loyalty, Integrity; Loyalty, Sincerity, Truth; Love, Honor, Loyalty; Loyalty, Surrender, Obedience. I was still an observer to Loyalty, separated, external to the concept. This I know to be illusion, for there is no separation in reality .

Is my perceived status as observer telling me that I have not yet become Loyalty? For had I become Loyalty, I would not be conscious of it, but rather I would be totally God-conscious.

Duality and Oneness. Loyalty to me is having not a tissue paper's thinness between me and God. Loyalty can tolerate nothing of self and requires total unity with God. However, it is a unity out of duality. Loyalty requires an 'other,' an object of devotion or allegiance, so two are implied. Loyalty is not multiplicity, for multiples would create conflict. There can be no separation of allegiance in Loyalty. God must be All. Loyalty is duality, becoming One.

Conjunction. Looking at the composition of the word, Loyalty, I observe two Yods, LOYALTY, a conjunction, another way of expressing the duality as One. L=Love; O=One; Y= You; A=Allegiance; L=Law; T= Truth; Y= Yetsirah, Yod, Youth.

Loyalty as Adoration. Full loyalty to God is absolute adoration of God, full allegiance to the Light as the Source of all that is. Loyalty is not being separated from God by a single dark or to-the-self thought. Perhaps that is why it is so difficult for me to maintain an attitude of Loyalty, at times experiencing fear and doubt, self-consciousness.

I recognize two key approaches to becoming Loyalty. The first is "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God." Loyalty requires that I begin and end my seeking with God. The second is, "This is Good. Let there be Light." This is my affirmation that God is all there is.

Loyalty as Being and Doing. Loyalty to God is something I am to become: full allegiance to God as the Truth of Reality. This was my first thought of Loyalty - a Principle. It was also called a prime virtue. (Question – the glossary defines loyalty as a prime virtue, yet it is not listed as one of the 12 prime virtues in the definition of Virtue.)

Then, as I read the glossary definition, I became aware of Loyalty, not only as being, but as action: loyalty "that is steadfast in the face of any temptation to renounce, desert, or betray." Loyalty takes action to defend that which is honored. This implies that I must do something: remain loyal in the face of all challenges. I take action to stand and face God when confronted with challenges and temptations on earth.

Loyalty of God. The loyalty of God lies in the certainty that I shall never be separated from Him or from the Light, that He wants all His children back, that when I give 1%, he gives 99%, that before I have called, He has answered. We have seen God's loyalty throughout time: Abraham and Isaac, the parting of the Red Sea, manna in the wilderness. I have but to bridge the abyss, move to close the gap, embrace God with such closeness that I allow not even a tissue paper's thinness between me and God.

Loyalty to All. My Loyalty to God is expressed as loyalty to all that God is as form, as man, as all of creation. This requires that I see the other perfect, seeing only the Light in others. When I "know the Truth," I am loyal to the Light of God as it appears in others.

Loyalty's Ensample. Where do I look for an ensample of Loyalty? To the Master. When I look to the Master as Loyalty, I feel closer to the Truth. The Master is my Bridge across the abyss - between the place I now stand, observing, and the Truth. When I think of the Master and observe His loyalty to God, I become conscious only of Light. The Master was Loyal when he said, "If ye had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from hence forth ye should have known him and have seen him," and "he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." "I am in the Father and the Father in me." (John 14) He embodied Loyalty as he prayed at Gethsemane. (The picture of Him praying at the rock tears at my soul each time I see it.) There were many expressions: teaching in the temple as a youth, his baptism, the temptation, following Mary's instructions at the marriage feast, the healing acts of faith: feeding the 5,000, raising Lazarus, and the routing of the money changers from the Temple, the ride on the colt of the ass. All were rooted in his Obedience and Loyalty to God. His Loyal Love for us is found in his statement, "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14)

To Edna Lister. Edna Lister's steadfastness is reflected over and over again in How to Stay UP. She constantly demonstrated her Faith and Loyalty to God. She honored God in all she did from writing lessons and letters to prayer work to hooking rag rugs. Her thoughts never strayed from "God first." She calls forth Loyalty in those who serve with her.

I bridge the abyss to Loyalty when I think of the Master and Edna Miriam. Does this mean that loyalty can be best understood through personality?

The Master on Loyalty. The Master's parable of the ten talents gives me insight into what is expected of one who is Loyal. In Matthew 25:21, the "hard" master says, "Well done, thy good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the Joy of the Lord." as the talents are returned two-fold. Under full belief and Faith in God's abundance, we take what is given us and return it multiplied.

Honor and Loyalty under Faith.My first thoughts about Loyalty derive from the concept of Loyalty as Principle — Loyalty to the Source, the root of being: the absolute, undeviating, unchangeable, immutable foundation upon which all things are based and established. The second dimension of Loyalty that most strikes me is:

"When the Faith of God becomes the ruling passion of man's heart and soul, the twin Pillars of Flame, Honor and Loyalty to God (emphasis added), support him on either side. These Golden Eternal Flames shine forth upon a weary world, giant torches lighting the way for Truth to lead all Creation back to its Source. The Faith of God cannot be set aside by anything the world might produce against it in darkness. Man has never conquered it, and never can conquer it by any action he can try." (From Faith the Challenger)

This passage takes my breath away. There is such power in each of the words: Faith, Pillars, Honor, Loyalty, Golden Eternal; Flames, Truth, Creation, Source. Of Honor, Loyalty and Integrity, Honor would seem to come first, backed up by Loyalty. Loyalty follows Honor under complete devotion to the Godhead.

Loyalty to My Heavenly Father. I have not explored my Loyalty to my Heavenly Father is this essay. It expresses as my service to Him and His Creation. It expresses in the great love that I have for him and consciousness of his great love for me. Here, I acknowledge it. My loyalty to my Heavenly Father is expressed in gratitude and Love.

Personal Questionnaire. What is there between me and God? If anything comes between or causes separation, I am being disloyal.
Do I truly seek God first and then stay UP with the Light?
How do I respond when something challenges my high resolve? Do I turn to the Light and embrace it?
Do I stand in Loyalty and Honor to God under all circumstances? Do I stand in the full Light? Do I live in the Golden Silence? Am I a flaming pillar?
How do I work to increase my Loyalty? Am I obedient to Law?
Can I apply loyalty in just one area of my life? If I can apply it in one, I can apply it in all
Am I grateful? Do I love God enough?
Am I loyal to God's Light as it appears in others?