Infidelity is generally thought of strictly in terms of unfaithfulness in sexual or romantic realms. And certainly betrayal here cuts deep. But this limited focus can fuel our pride and cause us to miss the many other shades of infidelity that can also cause harm to our relationships.
Infidelity is committed anytime we’re disloyal or otherwise unfaithful to the sanctity of our relationships. And this includes both introducing the presence of the negative and the absence of the positive.
For instance, we’re being unfaithful when we misuse our family finances and keep it a secret, when our priorities are misaligned, or we consistently pursue and maintain relationships that poison our hearts. And it’s tempting to believe that we’ve not done anything wrong because we’ve not crossed sexual boundaries or gotten involved with someone else romantically. But infidelity strains our relationships regardless of the form it takes.
And this remains true whenever we fail to do the good we’re supposed to do as well. For example, we’re not being loyal whenever we neglect to invest the time, resources, and attention needed. This might be in the form of our disengagement, ignoring reasonable requests, or simply not taking seriously enough the things important to the other. While we might not have done anything wrong per se, we’re not being faithful when we allow the absence of the good to remain.
In short, faithfulness is remaining true and loyal to our relationship. And infidelity is anything that distorts or fails to cultivate the good.
This is not to suggest all infidelities are equal. To be sure, committing adultery is not the same as neglecting our quality time together. But we miss the mark and invite degrees of harm regardless of the particular shade of infidelity committed. And we must not let pride tempt us to dismiss the impact of our sin just because it’s not as blatant or severe as another.
In the end, remain faithful and true in every aspect of your relationships – watching out for all shades of infidelity.
Photo by Christopher Jolly on Unsplash
