‘Traitors’ is a British BBC reality television series broadcast, which has attracted millions of viewers. It is a ‘fun game’ of trust and treachery, portraying back-stabbing, scheming and deceit as life skills. Players designated as ‘faithful’ have to identify the players who are ‘traitors’.

The BBC news is full of reports about Lord Peter Mandelson who is accused of real treachery. He is being investigated for selfish financial crimes involving betraying his position of trust; of sharing market-sensitive information with a criminal. Many people are now ashamed of their friendship with and trust in this disgraced man.

There have been many traitors in history. The most famous in the Bible was the disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus into the hands of the religious rulers. He seemed to be a true follower of Jesus, and fooled the other disciples, though not Jesus. In fact, even before this he had been a selfish and cunning thief.

He [Judas] said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it (John 12:6).

And he actually initiated the agreement to betray Jesus to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). He was a fake disciple: a traitor.

In total contrast, Jesus was completely honest and free from any trace of deceit. He asks his followers to trust him, not be ashamed of him, be his friend and try to be like him. He said:

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels (Luke 9:26).

Just as in the BBC game, there are only two groups of people; sheep or goats, faithful or ‘traitors’. Jesus also said:

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters (Luke 11:23);

and

You are my friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14).

There is no middle ground. We are either faithful to Jesus or we are not. Surely we want to be faithful, not traitors. We do not want to let Jesus down. And we need to be genuine: we cannot fool God or Jesus. Let us therefore find out what they ask of us and try to the best of our ability to do it. If we do this then God will not be ‘ashamed’ of us, but pleased to give us a place in His wonderful kingdom with Jesus as king.