True Loyalty to the Lord

Commenting on Dan. 1:8–16, Sinclair Ferguson reflects:

Some Christians are heroes in their daydreams only. The characteristic mark of such heroism is imagining ourselves as faithful on great and public occasions and in rarefied atmospheres when others will be impressed. In stark contrast, true faithfulness in Scripture is first exercised in small things and in private. If we fail there, any faithfulness we show in public will be hypocrisy, a performance for the crowd and not an expression of loyalty to our Lord.

 —Sinclair Ferguson, Mastering the Old Testament: Daniel (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1988), 38.