A Loyal Friend?

In his play "Julius Caesar" Shakespeare tells the story of Marcus Brutus and his role in the assassination of his close friend the Roman Emperor. In the story, as Caesar enters the Senate chamber where his assassins wait to attack him and he sees his friend Brutus among the attackers. As Caesar is being stabbed to death he looks up at his friend and utters the famous words "Et tu, Brute?" These words (which mean, "You too, Brutus?") are uttered with great pain as if the betrayal of his friend hurts worse than the diggers that pierce his flesh.


This tragic story is an extreme example of how it hurts when a friend that you thought you could  depend on appears to be against you. Hopefully you have never had a friend who has conspired with your enemies to kill you, but you may have had some who have let you down, broken promises, talked about you behind your back, or hurt you in any number of other ways. You know the pain of that moment when you realize that your friend has not been the friend you thought and hoped they would be. That pain must drive you to be a loyal friend, to be one who will not be the cause of such pain for others.


Betrayal sounds like such a harsh word, but is there any other word that describes what we do when we let our friends down? How about when we gossip about them, break our promises to them, or even just choose not to believe the best about them when given the option? If loyalty is one of the things that makes a friend a close and valued friend, then betrayal (or disloyalty) is a friendship killer.


Prov. 17:17 says that "a friend loves at all times." That verse speaks to me of loyalty. It says that if I want to be a friend to someone I must be loyal to them, they must be able to depend on me at all times. It challenges me to always believe the best about them and to defend them to others. It means that I must be willing to risk my own reputation to stand by my friend if needed. 


If you are like me you have already let your friends down, you may even realize after reading this that you might be guilty of betraying them. This is your chance to become a better friend, a loyal friend. We all want to have friends we can count on, but that starts with being a friend that can be counted on.