Are You A Faithful Christian?

Are you a Roman candle Christian – a lot a sparks at first and a big bang, and then you disappear? Or are you an Alka Seltzer Christian – plop, plop, fizz, fizz, bubble, bubble, and then nothing? No, hopefully you are the kind of Christian Paul writes about in Hebrews 12:2, a runner who patiently finishes the race, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

If you are going to be an example of faithfulness, you must be true to your word. In other words, we must keep our promises. We must be careful to do what we say we are going to do. Stay true to the vows you have taken in marriage and in joining the church. Those vows are holy and sacred before God and are not to be taken lightly. If you promised to be a faithful spouse, be one. If you promised to be a faithful member of your church, by all means, be one.

We Christians we are called to be faithful people: faithful to God, faithful to His church, faithful to His people, faithful to our family, and faithful to our community. We cannot be stubborn and only into ourselves, we must put God first and others second, doing unto others as we would have them do to us. (Matthew 7:12). We need faithfully walk in love and forgiveness.

The characteristic of faithfulness is certainly one element that is missing in much of our society today. Marriages break up because of a lack of faithfulness. Business partnerships dissolve because of a lack of faithfulness. Friendships end in bitterness because of a lack of faithfulness. Faithfulness is the foundation for human relationships and for stability in society. Unfortunately, faithfulness, and words related to it like commitment, loyalty, reliability, and integrity, is no longer considered as essential by many parts of our culture. But we are to be faithful.

For us as believers, faithfulness is indispensable. Without it, we will not be pleasing to God. Indeed, the one characteristic which should mark Christians is faithfulness. It should mark us because it marks God. Great is His faithfulness, day after day, morning by morning.

Faithfulness is an essential attribute of God's character. It should go without saying that God is faithful. We read in 2 Timothy 2:13; "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself."

It would be a denial of God's very own nature for Him to be anything other than perfectly faithful. We need to faithful, too, not let anything keep us from helping God’s church by attending and loving and encouraging the fellow members and the elders and pastor.

Indeed, would we want a God who is less than faithful? If we had such a God, then we would never be certain whether we could trust Him. What good would His Word be? Of what value would His promises be? No! We would not want a God like that. And we do not have a God like that! We have a God in whom we can express the utmost confidence, because this God keeps His word. We are told in Hebrews 10:23, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." We serve a God who is faithful. We can trust Him.

Even our faith is based on His faithfulness. Hebrews 11:11 reads, "By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised." God's faithfulness produces faith in us. The fact that God is faithful means we can have faith in Him. If we will take our eyes off ourselves, we might see Jesus.

And if we keep our eyes on Jesus, faithfulness will come. Faith comes by hearing the Word (Rom. 10:17). This is the cycle which faithfulness produces. God's faithfulness will produce faith in us, which will then produce faithfulness in our lives as well. Because God is faithful, we learn to be faithful. Faithfulness is such a wonderful thing, stoked by the fires of true believers.

We have been called to faithfulness. In Luke 16:10 we read, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."

The choice is between being faithful or unrighteous. The opposite of faithfulness is unrighteousness. Indeed, our lives will be evaluated by our faithfulness or our lack of it.