“Faithfulness.” What is it? Often we regulate faithfulness to a series of works that we accomplish. If I go to church the number of times that I think will pay my debt to God, then I am faithful. If I sing songs without the accompaniment of an instrument of music, then I am faithful. If I don’t do things that I’ve determined that God thinks are bad, then I am faithful.
The root of the word faithfulness, of course, is faith. The word faith is sometimes used objectively as a reference to the system of faith to which one chooses to subscribe. For example, one might say, “I’m of the Catholic faith.” While the Bible does use the word faith on occasion to refer to the system of faith established by the Lord and taught by the apostles, I believe that, for the most part, the word faith refers to an individual’s trust in God. For example, the writer of Hebrews declared, “But without faith [trust in God] it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe {trust} that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). It was their trust in God on which the writer is commenting concerning Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others in this chapter. The writer demonstrates several times that because of their trust in God they obeyed what God said to do. Because of their trust in God they made sacrifices in this world because they knew God would reward them in the next. In other words, I am considered faithful if I trust in God. That trust is manifested in the things I do that God has commanded. That trust is manifested in the attitude I have got toward the material world around me and the spiritual world around me. Being religious and doing religious things right does not necessarily imply faithfulness as we so often think.
I cannot think of a more religious people than the Jewish people of the Old Testament. Even when they were at the peak of their most unfaithful era, they were very religious. In Jeremiah 7 the prophet is told to rebuke the Jews because their faith (trust) was in the fact that they went to the temple of God. Their faith was in the fact that they were Jews. They thought that because they were the people of God and because they went to the temple of God they could do whatever they well pleased. Jeremiah told the, “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit, Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?” (Jeremiah 7:8-10). They were very religious, but they were very wicked…unfaithful. Their trust wasn’t in God, but in their religiousness. Ezekiel would later prophesy that such people are as worthless to the Lord as a grape vine that has been twice burned. (Ezekiel 15)
Faithfulness is not measured by how religious we are. Faithfulness is regulated by how much we trust God. Jesus encouraged those who were being threatened with death to “not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation….Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10) What is He saying…be religious until death? No, He is saying continue to trust God until (even in the face of) death. God said those who trust in Him will be given eternal victory over death (I Corinthians 15), trust that fact!
Obviously, if one trusts God he will obey God – he will not willfully choose to continue in sin. He will faithfully worship God – he will not willfully choose to offer worship which does not please God. (continued on page 2)
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He will avoid those things that are sinful. He will walk in the light of God’s word. But, most of all, he will trust what God did for him in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. He will trust that God’s gift and God’s power are all sufficient.
Read your Bible. Worship God according to the pattern. Stop living under the rule of sin and Satan and make Jesus ruler of your life. Be washed from the guilt of sin in the blood of Christ. These are commands of God; you cannot be saved from the wrath of God without doing this things. But put your trust in God’s power – not in what you do.
Mike Underwood
Chestnut Drive
Church of Christ
