What is the worse thing that can happen in a marriage? Wouldn’t most people agree it is unfaithfulness, having an affair? Personally I believe that the most important aspect of love is trust and trustworthiness. Once trust is broken it’s incredibly difficult to totally regain it. It’s like our world has been turned upside down and there is always that nagging doubt in the back of our minds, sometimes forever. Please people, think before you do something you might regret, because it can change things forever.
The first year of an infant’s life is primarily about building trust when they are completely at the mercy of their caretakers for survival. The faithfulness of the parents makes the difference as to whether that child will feel secure throughout their life or not. This is the first stage of human psychological development.
The same is true of a marriage. The greatest gift we can give our spouse is our faithfulness, not just physically, but also emotionally, so that they can rest in the fact that they are physically and emotionally safe with us, that we would never hurt them intentionally. And believe me, an affair is always intentional, lying is always intentional, putting someone down is always intentional. God desires this faithfulness from us, and he gives it to us, and our fellow Christians should be the most trustworthy people in our lives. Is that the case?
So today we look at the 7th listed fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 - faithfulness. I have chosen plums as the fruit of the week ...
In talking about faithfulness, let’s first look at:
I. Its Meaning
We are called to have faith and to be faithful as God is faithful. Pistis in the Greek means faith, and pistos means faithful, and interestingly the words together mean persuasive and trustworthy. How often is this not the case? Often people who are persuasive are not necessarily trustworthy are they?
Again this is a quality of God and I know that some people have left the faith or their church because of things that people have done, but here is a great verse for them from Romans 3:3-4 where Paul is talking about the Jews, “What if some were unfaithful (in the church)? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
"That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged."
Again in 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
God is never to blame when His people do wrong. Leaving a church, or leaving the faith because of people’s mistakes shows a lack of faith, or at least putting faith in the wrong place. God is faithful because that is His nature, people and churches may not be.
Look at Matthew 9:22 when the woman touched Jesus’ robe and was instantly healed. Jesus said to her “Your faith has made you well.” She was completely persuaded that just by touching Jesus’ garment she would be healed. This is one of the great examples of faith.
Also the Roman centurion who said to Jesus, don’t come to my house to heal my servant, I’m not worthy of that, just say the word and he will be healed. Jesus then told his Jewish listeners that he had not found such faith in anyone in Israel.
You will be hard pressed to find anywhere in the Bible where faith is just words, just belief. Faith is always shown, it must be tested.
The Bible itself gives a good definition of faith in Hebrews 10 and 11. Read from 10:19-11:1.
So faithfulness is a constant, unwavering commitment, “stick to itness” that comes from our sustainer who is perfectly faithful. Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. That’s important, spiritual faith doesn’t initially come from experience, but from hearing the word of God. And He (God) is faithful, if as it says in 1 John 1:9, we confess our sins, and are obedient according to His grace.
Let’s now look at:
II. Some Models of faithfulness in the Bible
Here is the famous hall of fame of faith and what the writer of Hebrews says about their faith, read 11:3-39. They did not get to see the Messiah in their lifetime. Of course in the New Testament, Christ was the epitome of faith and we also see in Paul and Timothy great faith in Jesus, and faithfulness to each other.
What are some of the qualities of this faith that are commended? They can be summarized in this way: Giving good sacrifices to God, believing God exists and seeking Him, believing what God says and obeying as Noah did, going where God tells you, Sarah believing in a miracle, being more focused on heaven than earth, allowing oneself to be mistreated for standing up for the faith.
And none of those people who lived before Christ came received the ultimate promise of the Messiah. We know the Messiah has come so how much more should our faith be?
Do we believe that God is faithful? Have we had experiences that have made us wonder if he exists, or if He does, if he cares about us? The Bible continually speaks of His faithfulness but have we experienced the truth of this? How can we be sure?
Well my friends, it’s through faith, and if we look at what is common in all the qualities of those who were commended for their faith, it is unquestioning belief and obedience that stand out. I believe the Bible tells us constantly that we will experience God when we are obedient to what he says.
Let me give you a real life example. A child dies and the parents wonder why, they’re angry at God, they don’t understand how a loving God could let this happen. Before turning away, they ask God what he wants, they negotiate, they ask “what have they done to displease Him”, and so on. But no answer comes in their prayers. Do they continue to believe in God’s faithfulness? This is where we need to look at the Word of God to see what he wants us to do in these circumstances.
First of all we read that God does not want anyone to perish. The death of a child is not God’s will, but is the reality of a fallen world in which we chose to rebel and bring death into the world. So we can’t blame Him. Burn pictures of Adam and Eve if you want to, but don’t blame God. The wages of sin is death, not necessarily even our specific sin, but sin that came into the world in the beginning.
He says let the little children come for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The children are never ours, but His, and we must believe that he will take better care of them than we can, when they die, they have not truly perished, they are just not in our care anymore, but His.
I counted 46 verses in the Bible, many of them in the Psalms, that comment on grief, and they all pretty much say that God is there for our comfort, so what is the implication? We are to seek God, not answers. But seek him. He promises to comfort us in our afflictions, but he doesn’t promise to explain things. He wants our surrender to him so he can take care of us like his children, like the infant surrenders to its mother or father.
When the parent loses a child they seek answers and beg to have things reversed, often rather than seeking God himself and his comfort. We are to try and look at things from His perspective, but most importantly we are to strengthen our faith in the fact that God uses all things for good, - for everyone?
No. Romans 8:28 says, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. We are to love him more when tragedy strikes, and we are to look for what His purpose is for us in the tragedy. Remember grief is usually selfish, it’s not about the other person, it’s about us and our pain. Of course nobody will judge us if we grieve a great loss, but God is only concerned about one thing, eternal life, our eternal life, which requires faith in God and a relationship with him. You see God doesn’t grieve the death of a child, they’re with Him, but he does grieve for the people left behind, and in his grief, he always wants us to come closer and be obedient so he can be there for us in our grief, and ultimately enjoy us in heaven.
Now this doesn’t mean that a parent who loses a child does not have enough faith. It doesn’t say that anywhere. But it does mean that at that time, he is calling them to come closer to Him so he can reveal His purpose for them. When we can look at it that way, perhaps we can see the “big picture gift” in the tragedy, and be comforted by His truth.
This is just one example of why it’s so important for us to share examples of God’s faithfulness in our lives with our brothers and sisters, and our children. Tell people about the blessings of our obedience, how God has taken a terrible time in our lives and used it for our good and the good of others. We must not be afraid to share this stuff with others, it might make the difference for someone.
Finally let’s look at the:
III. The Mandate
I know I have kind of bounced between faith and faithfulness today. Is there a difference? Faith is trust and obedience, faithfulness is a character trait, or fruit, that shows faith over the long run. In many ways it is like talking about the difference between “being good” and “doing good deeds”. Our faith shows that we trust, faithfulness shows that we can be trusted.
According to Matthew 25, the mandate from God is for us to be good and faithful servants for Him. “Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” What does it mean here to be faithful? In this context of the parable of the talents, it is obedience.
This parable not just about financial stewardship. Jesus is letting us know that we are supposed to use what God has given us for his purposes, including our gifts and potential, to produce fruit. Of course the greatest gift we have received is salvation, and this parable is telling us that we must use what we have and make it multiply. So the question we might ask ourselves here is “how has what God has given me benefited others?” Or have we buried our salvation in a safe place just waiting for Him to come back?
Is that your greatest goal in this life, to stay faithful over everything, even the little things, so that you can hear those words from Jesus? “Good and faithful servant.” Our blessings come from faithfulness, and our empowerment from the Holy Spirit is proportional to our faithfulness. We need to be convinced to be committed. Are we convinced? Have we been persuaded so as to be completely convinced that the word of God is the truth, and His promises are set in stone because of His faithfulness?
Or are you not sure? I am convinced that if we are convinced, there will be no holding back in our Christian walk. Maybe that’s where we all need to look. Maybe it’s that simple. If we are not showing that extreme commitment, maybe it’s because we haven’t even gotten past the convinced part, we still have doubts, a lack of faith. That’s not wrong, but we need to ask for help in our unbelief. Ask to be persuaded by God in his word, not by people.
There’s a book called, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction – Discipleship in an Instant Society”. The author quotes Nietzsche, "The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is. . . that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; something which has made life worth living."
That is faithfulness, a long obedience in the same direction. No changing direction, no giving up, but absolute conviction. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God is dog spelled backwards. The next most faithful thing I can think of next to God, are dogs. It doesn’t matter how long we leave them, how we treat them, for the most part they remain loyal to their master. Jesus is like that, can we be like that with Him?
Show BTC Video
This week in the action step I wanted to give us a tangible opportunity to show our faithfulness. As we saw in the video, we are participating with thousands of other North American churches in Back to Church Sunday on September 13. The idea behind it is that research has shown that up to eighty percent of non churchgoing people, including those who used to attend, would go if someone they knew invited them, but only 2 percent of church going people invite anyone. So let’s put it to the test.
Action step: First PRAY like crazy and keep praying. Then invite at least one person that you know who does not attend church, to come with you on September 13 for “Back to Church Sunday”
