Faithfulness Simiplified

The life of a follower of Christ is meant to be one of faithfulness. Hebrews 10.19-25 reminds us that the reason we are to be faithful to Christ is because He has already been faithful to us. It’s by His faithfulness that we have redemption from our sins and an eternity secured in His presence forever! Since He is faithful to us first, we are to be faithful to Him in return. The Psalmist wrote: “I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me.” (Psalm 119:30 ESV)

But if His desire is for us to be faithful, what does He mean by that? Does that mean that we can’t hang out with certain friends anymore? Does it mean that we can’t visit stores or amusement parks that support things that we don’t agree with? Does it mean that we’re going to have sell our cars and homes and throw out all our t-shirts, shorts, and cosmetics and buy long dresses and button-up shirts and live out in the wilderness?

Okay, maybe living in the wilderness might be nice (especially if there is no cell service), but for us to discover what Christ means by “faithfulness” it’s sometimes easier to see what He does not mean.

First off, faithfulness does not mean perfection.  Even as a redeemed human in a broken and fallen world, that’s an impossibility for us. There are times that we slip, fall, and fail; but our failures are not a reason to give up or to give in. Solomon reminds us in Lamentations 3.22-23 that, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” We serve a merciful and compassionate God who longs for us to come to Him in our brokenness. Perfection is what we strive toward, but it can never be achieved in our sinful state.

Faithfulness is not striving to be better. When we talk about being better, we have to ask “being better than what?” Being better than we were yesterday? Being better than our friends? Being better than Billy Graham? Being faithful is not about being better than we used to be or better than someone else. How would we judge that anyway? In order to discover if we are “better” than someone else we must first have a clear definition of what is good/better and we would have to put down our masks, open up our lives, and let everyone see the real us. That might be too much for some.

Faithfulness does not mean working harder. We often pride ourselves in our work. Whether it’s at the grocery store or the law office, we generally want to be known as hard working people. And that is a great goal for our employment status, but it doesn’t equate faithfulness. Jesus had a disciple that He entrusted with the finances of the disciples. Not only did this disciple take a few dollars off the top for himself, he also betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities. Hard work doesn’t guarantee that we will exhibit faithfulness in our lives.

So, what then is faithfulness? Simply put, faithfulness is obedience. Faithfulness to Christ is found in surrendering ourselves, our will and our desire, to Christ.

Faithfulness means that I will make different choices. It means that I don’t look on His commands with disdain or even see them as a burden. It means that I have a burning passion to follow and serve the One who willingly allowed Himself to be beaten, tortured, broken, and bruised because of me and my sin. It means that I view His bride (the church), not as a flawed organization, but as a living and active representation of Christ and His Kingdom. It means that my attachments to the things of this world (my job, my finances, my relationships) are all directly effected by the presence of Christ residing in me!

This is the faithfulness that Christ calls us to strive toward every day! It’s a faithfulness the world cannot comprehend. The question that we must answer for ourselves is, “Is Christ worth it?”