Faithfulness

I am currently taken with the biblical concept of faithfulness.  It is a concept that relates to the nature of God.  He is faithful in his promises, accenting that loyalty with an oath.  He doubled the assurance to mankind of his faithfulness in that his word is unchangeable, giving permanence to it.  There is a combination here used in the courts of the land in our mortal context.  Not only is the witness expected, in normal course, to tell the truth but affirms with an oath (unchanging affirmation) that what he or she states is the truth.  To violate that oath is to put the witness in the dock to answer for a crime, which by the oath becomes a legal matter.  The process indicates that truth is important to life – utterly vital to spiritual life. All this grows out of the holiness of God, and his integrity, reality, and order.  A lie (false witness) is a sin against God.  God makes it also a sin against mankind.  Faithfulness relates to both love and truth.  There are other factors of virtue in the analysis of faithfulness, like patience, sacrifice, and the like.

The sin of Judas is commonly identified as betrayal.  It was betrayal, the opposite of faithfulness.  He betrayed not only Jesus but his colleagues, the disciples.  Unwilling to follow through on the mission of Christ he should have resigned and sought his own goals.  In that he would have shown respect for the Christ’s effort, and whatever he believed in.  He became famous for not believing – for the negatives of his life.  He was even unfaithful to himself.  What had he done as the treasurer of the evangelistic team led by Jesus Christ?  As treasurer he appears to have taken from the corporate purse and needed thirty pieces of silver, perhaps with a personal fee included, to make up the thievery.  He was unfaithful in all.  Peter had a similar but temporary lapse at the trial of Jesus.  Recovering rather quickly he sought forgiveness, received it, learned something vital for Christian leadership, in the Christian Church.  His faithfulness thereafter was unto death.  In faithfulness one learns to be an overcomer.  Here is the context to better things – finding the way and walking in it with integrity and truth.  Here is the overcoming of weakness, sin, failure, even the negative forces found in nature.  There is always hope for the faithful. When we meet with overcomers we feel we have, in some way, been recipients of gifts from those who can meet life with limited resources, but matters will improve, and we will be better for that maturity.

Our concern with faithfulness relates to the loyalty factor.  I want to be loyal to my country, and I will be even if I disagree with my government.  If I can’t be loyal, I ought to move elsewhere, or in freedom maintain my loyalty but express views relating to national righteousness.  If required I will pay the price of that loyalty in search of a better society.  The price might be martyrdom as experienced by Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr.  Nelson Mandela was loyal to his country and was incarcerated for many years for his service to his country’s people.  Faithfulness is an avenue to discovery, love and peace.  Through many centuries Christians accepted martyrdom for their faithfulness to Jesus Christ. We are beneficiaries.

Jesus made clear that his followers were called to faithfulness, and offered assistance to achieve that life. It is one of the factors of righteousness, and is related to awareness that we sometimes give more than we receive.  A marriage and family is to be marked not only by love but by faithfulness.  The wife gives, with some cheerfulness to responsibility that she receives.  She may then find later that her husband is giving more than he receives.  The pendulum moves back and forth.  Faithfulness given ought to be met with faithfulness received, but it doesn’t always work out in balance.  A gracious lady told me the story of her parents.  The mother became a manic depressive creating a difficult home life.  When the daughter asked her father why he took things so well, his reply was: I made a commitment.  He was going to be faithful to her because he had promised to be faithful years before at an altar.  He would see it through.  It appeared to me to make his daughter a better person (now a widow) after caring for her husband through cancer and death.  July 30 was my mother’s birthday, and I had to write today about the factor of her life, that in love, her next identity was faithfulness to God, family and friends.