Sermon for CATM – November 18, 2007 – The Fruit of the Spirit - Faithfulness
Galatians 5:13-25
I went for a walk the other day in the crisp autumn air to clear my head and to prepare to work on today’s message.
Do you ever do that? Nobody else around you, or at least nobody there to judge your words or your thoughts…free to walk and think as you like and free to figure out what’s going on in your head.
What I noticed was how amazingly random my thoughts were. I would start here then jump over there and then to something that for the life of me just seemed totally disconnected.
I knew I was to start a series today on the fruit of the Spirit based on Galatians chapter 5. I knew I was going to speak on faithfulness.
When you study preaching, you’re taught that after you’ve prayed a lot, and read the passage and preferably read the book that the passage is in, to think about the problems with the Scripture you’re dealing with. That’s a good thing to do.
So I was thinking a lot about faithfulness and about the problems with that word.
The dictionary says that faithfulness can mean thoroughness in the performance of a duty – like a faithful worker. It means being true to your word or to your promise or your vows. It means being steady in allegiance or affection; being loyal, constant…a faithful friend. It means being reliable, trusted and believed.
As I was walking around my neighbourhood, I thought about times in my life where I had kind of spun out of control or had sinned or had just coasted without a lot of aim or purpose.
It struck me that those were times when I was either not committed to much or when my commitments didn’t mean what they should have meant to me.
And I thought also about people and family members that I know and love who are around my age and who have just never really put the pieces of their life together.
So they drift through life never really happy, never or not too often really terribly sad, never really following through with the plans they made or the dreams that they may still talk about but with less and less excitement.
And it struck me that there are at least two big problems with faithfulness and they are two sides of the same coin: Faithfulness is essential and faithfulness is [kind of] impossible. Stay with me.
Why is faithfulness essential? Simple. Without it, we won’t honour anything that matters in life. The opposite of faithfulness is, of course, unfaithfulness.
It is indulgence. It is doing what my heart wants, right now, without regard to commitments or to values.
Our society puts a lot of value on ‘following your heart’, and ‘let your heart lead you’.
You know, pretty and poetic-sounding words can emanate from the pit of hell, and ‘follow your heart’ is a good example of what I mean. Here’s what the Bible says: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” [Jer 17:9]
Why is faithfulness essential? A way of understanding faithfulness is “follow through”, and it is the foundation upon which trust is built. I remember years back when I was front line street youth worker and I spent a great deal of time in Evergreen’s drop in, working with youth.
Once in a while we’d be evaluated by our supervisors. Other staff would be told they were amazing working with youth, that they were energetic and spontaneous with the youth. I kept getting the same evaluation. “Matthew always shows up on time. He is always there.”.
And frankly I would sometimes be jealous of the other staff who seemed so much more well-spoken and seemed to have youth flock around them. Who got more sparkling evaluations. Then at some point I realized that there was value in always being present. Always being there.
Our own Pastor Jan is an amazing woman with a ministry to youth and to street women and to the rest of us that is second to none. If you know her you know what I mean. We are so blessed to have her here as our sister in Christ and as a pastor.
What’s Jan’s secret? She’s been asked that and she says: “I just show up”. Just show up. Do what you say your going to do. Follow through with that commitment you’ve made. Have the self-respect to honour your commitments. But there’s a problem still.
Here’s a familiar phrase: “Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife to love her, honour her and cherish her and care for her in Sickness and In health til death do you part”?
Where are you likely to hear those words? In a wedding. I believe deeply in marriage. I’ve been extremely happily married to Barbara for over 20 years now. I know that’s nothing compared to Paul and Shirley for example, but it’s a good start.
I believe that marriage is second to nothing for the well-being of individuals and society as a whole. But the irony is that wedding vows call humans to something that is beyond the scope of the human condition.
They call us to something impossible for us to do. The human race as a whole does not have a stellar record when it comes to honouring their vows. Often we hear of infidelity among movie stars and politicians. It’s rare that a Hollywood marriage reaches its first anniversary.
The Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals of the 80’s and 90’s, just to name two, make it clear that the church is not immune to the evil of infidelity.
We can struggle deeply at times to follow through with our commitments.
But, you see, faithfulness is love hanging on. It is love saying, "I will not quit. There may be misunderstandings, there may be disappointments, there may be discouragements, but I will not quit." Faithfulness is love hanging on.
So…if faithfulness is essential but impossible or at least really, really hard for some, should vows like wedding vows…should they be rewritten to accommodate human weakness?
Is that how to deal with the fact that we aspire to faithfulness yet, if we’re honest, we find it at least challenging?
Hallmark has a card that says, "I can’t promise you forever, but I can promise you today." That’s about as deep a commitment as some are willing to make. That might be the limit of human capacity. That probably does represent our best promise, apart from God.
You know, the same principal I’m going to share can be applied to any human aspirations that go beyond our basest instincts. The call to faithfulness is the call to God. That longing we have to be in a stable, loving and mature relationship can be met not because we long, not because we’re able to dig deep into the reservoir of our souls and discover a capacity for faithfulness.
The longing for love can only be met by God. The capacity to love and to be faithful comes from God, who is the very definition of faithfulness.
Now our discussion about faithfulness as a fruit of knowing and dwelling in God, a fruit of the Spirit, is found in Galatians 5. I’ve asked Keitha to read. [Scripture to read]
The book of Galatians as a whole is fascinating. It is one big call to: “BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL” Let’s take a super-quick tour through Galatians: Paul begins Galatians with a tone of astonishment that people are abandoning the gospel for the law.
The very, very few people I’ve known who have walked away from Christ or effectively renounced their faith…I’ve always been flabbergasted that someone can do that. How can anyone actually know Jesus Christ and then make the decision to reject Him? I can understand back-sliding. Been there, done that.
I can understand struggling to make sense of life and of faith, but it’s always astonishing when someone abandons their faith. The Galatians were abandoning their faith because they were listening to people who were saying that faith in Christ is not enough. You have to do stuff. Stuff that hurts…in order to be saved. And the Galatians were buying it.
Paul then, as we continue our jet ski ride through Galatians, argues for grace not law. It is by grace we have been saved. No one can be saved by obeying the law.
Then he states that that Christians are the ingrafted, adopted children of God who have received the full promise of adoption.
Nicky Gumble tells about a child in a schoolyard during recess who is being taunted by his peers for being adopted. The child looks out at his accusers and says: “Look. My parents chose me. They got lumped with you”.
In chapter 4:11, Paul fears that his efforts have been in vain to bring them the gospel because they are abandoning it. Then he begins chapter 5 with something that is perhaps quite unexpected: A freedom cry.
He says: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
It’s about freedom. And it’s about love. He gives another warning: Gal 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Then Paul gives the key. We have the problem…substituting useless things for Jesus. We have the fruit of substituting useless things for Jesus: 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In other words the problem is that all these things rob us of life and misdirect us from God. They lead to our destruction.
And then we have the solution…God’s solution to the mess we’ve made:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
God’s solution is that we can choose to be led by the Spirit of God. What does God promise will take the place of gratifying the desires of our flesh?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Now we’ll be talking a lot over the upcoming weeks about these fruit of the Spirit. Today we continue with faithfulness. We’re doing the fruit out of their normal order because many of the fruit converge with Advent themes coming up.
We hear that along with the other fruit of the Spirit, the very interesting statement that there is no law against faithfulness. The OT law guarded against evil.
For those who were infiltrating the Galatian church and trying to persuade the people about the importance of the law, Paul takes a sideways swipe by saying this: faithfulness has no law against it and needs no law to uphold it.
Also, after listing the fruit of the Spirit, Paul says that those who belong to Jesus are dead to the sinful nature and its passions and desires. What does THAT mean? We can’t possibly sin and be Christians?
THAT would be a bad reading of this text. It simply means we have a choice. If we find ourselves struggling with sin, we may FEEL that we are too weak to resist. Now that’s a lie that Satan would love us to believe. “ You’re just not strong enough to live for God. You’re just too weak”. No. Jesus Christ has crucified the sinful nature. It’s been dealt a fatal blow. It does not hold decisive power over us any more.
And finally: 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit
There are two problems with faithfulness. It is essential and it is impossible… except…by grace. Except by the Spirit. All of the struggles that humans face on their own including the struggle to be faithful people…God our Creator never actually intended us to have to face by ourselves.
If you were to look in the dictionary again, you would find a technical definition of faithfulness that says, "To follow through with a commitment regardless of difficulty." That’s a good definition.
Here are some more scriptures that challenge us to be faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 challenges us to be faithful in stewardship. Ephesians 6:21 talks about being faithful in service. 1 Timothy 5:9 speaks of being faithful in our marriages. Revelation 2:15 speaks of being faithful in witnessing. Romans 12:12 says we are to be faithful in prayer. Colossians 1:7 speaks of being faithful in ministry.
Revelation 17:14 says we are to be faithful in following the Lord. Proverbs 31:26 speaks of faithful instruction. 3rd John 3 says we are to be faithful in the truth. Revelation 13:10 speaks of faithfulness even in times of persecution. Revelation 2:10 says we are to be faithful unto death & then we’ll receive the crown of life.
As I was walking in the crisp fall breeze the other day, twice I was stopped in my tracks by trees whose autumn leaves were so red, so beautiful, so startling that they took my breath away. “How can something be so beautiful…in death?”, I thought to my self. And then I sensed that God was reminding me both of the beauty He has made here, and the beauty that awaits us in glory.
Faithfulness is essential. Faithfulness is impossible for the human condition. But we have a Saviour who has sent His Spirit to indwell you and to indwell me. The Holy Spirit causes fruit to grow in our lives. Fruit that reflects the character of Jesus.
We are a called people, and one key thing we’re called to is to live a life of love modelled on our Saviour. The beauty of this is that we do not have to struggle with faithfulness as an abstract idea. We have a friend, we have a King, we have a faithful high priest who embodies faithfulness.
Jesus Christ. Faithful in Word. Faithful in deed. Calling us to become His own. To reflect His character. Giving us the means…His precious Holy Spirit from whom faithfulness springs forth.
How faithful is Jesus? In the gospels we see Him as the One who demonstrates by all His actions a love…that holds on no matter what. And when Good Friday, as we call it, finally comes, we see Him lifted up…upon a cross…holding on no matter what…until His final agonized breath. Faithful to the death.
But the cross was not the final word for Jesus. In communion we celebrate the resurrection of the Saviour who’s love holds on for ever.
Go to Communion.
