Chivalry for Today

This video will talk about what chivalry is, and what it means, where it comes from, why you should do it, and some examples of how you can.

Chivalry can be described as showing love to someone who is different from you, or who may even be your enemy.

This difference does not imply conflict. Men and women are different, but they are not inherently in conflict. There is friendly chivalry and chivalry among friends.

Chivalry be derived from the biblical concept of Trinity, that, as God is not a Unitarian, solitary God, he has never been alone throughout eternity. Throughout eternity, he has always had friendship, love, compassion, interaction, interrelation, respect, togetherness, fellowship in amongst himself as part of his very nature, being one being in three persons. As such, God has never been lonely or needy, and he has always been able to be loving since he had someone to love. The father loves the son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus loves the father and the spirit. The spirit loves the father and Jesus. As a result of this, God created us with the intention that we would love others and be relational towards them. He did not want us to be untoward, solitary, or isolationist.

Since God, in his very nature is loving and relational, and is turned towards others, as within the trinity, the three persons are interactive and relational and respectful and loving towards each other, it is both part of our moral imperative, from God upon us, as well as the ultimate, true good, and beautiful and wonderful thing that we should desire and pursue, we should also behave in this way. We should think and be this way. Just like God who created us.

Because God is Trinitarian, we should be chivalrous. You can see an example of God‘s chivalry in the book of Job, where the devil came up among the other angels, and presented himself before the Lord, and even though they are enemies, God still expressed respect, decency, And a sort of fatherly communicativeness, reaching out, or continuing to interact with His wayward and sinful angel. In some sort of diplomatic way, God was still communicating with the devil in a way that was halfway decent. Even though the devil is not going to repent, God has a father may still wish to have some sort of a conversation. Even though they are enemies on the battlefield squaring off in total combat, God still showed chivalry.

Another example of chivalry is when Elisha captured an entire army, and led them to the military of his country, and told them to give them food and water, treat them as captains or guests, and then send them back to their country, even though they were blinded.

Chivalry can be seen as love towards those were different from you, even though we don’t understand, we still treat them in a way that is good and loving, and gentle, and gracious and kind and sweet. That’s why we hold doors open for ladies, gentlemen, that’s why we do 1 million things to be kind and gracious to ladies and make their lives as beautiful and wonderful as they themselves are because God created them wonderful. So you could probably see chivalry as respecting and valuing people for the good aspect and the goodness and the value and awesomeness and the good that God put in them. Truly evil enemies, there is not much of that. But you’re not doing it for their sake, you’re honoring God instead of them in that case. You’re honoring what God is like, even though you can’t probably honor the evilest of enemies.

That is why, when the angel of God disputed with the devil over the bones of Moses, at the time of Exodus, the angel of God did not bring harsh language against the devil, but only said “the Lord rebuke you.“

Since God, in his very nature is loving and relational, and is turned towards Others who are different, in a way that brings comes from and returns to unity and fellowship, (father and son and spirit are different and yet unified). The father is not the sun. The sun is not the spirit. The spirit is not the father. And vice versa. And yet the different persons still show love to one another across the space of that difference. It should be stated that God is better than chivalrous, because he doesn’t just show respect to someone who is different, he is unified as a Trinity. Jesus is unified with the father and the spirit. The father is unified with Jesus and the spirit. The spirit is unified with Jesus and the father. Jesus is in the father, and the father is in him. Etc for father and spirit. We humans can emulate God‘s trinity by trying to be chivalrous and loving towards others. But God is better than chivalrous, because he really is unified in himself. It was out of the overflowing of his love, that he’s already loving, but he did a naturally would create us. Not out of neediness, but out of just an overflowing and generous love.

He did not want us to be antisocial and ruthless like Adam in the garden who just wanted what he wanted, stay away from others, unless he needed something, and let Eve debate the devil all alone without chiming in to help her even though he was standing nearby, and letting her go first to face the danger, and eat the fruit which might instantly kill her. God has said that when they eat the fruit they will die. He let her go first. But at least he had a smidgen of honor in that once he saw that she didn’t drop dead, he ate the fruit after her. I’m not saying that’s a good, but at least he didn’t let her stay alone in sin.

When it includes an enemy chivalry comes from the dual concepts of truth, that they are your enemy, that you have to fight legitimately, but you also have to love them, under the command of God, you have to love them in some way, even if that means you’re doing it on a battlefield in the context of fighting a war.