Faithfulness

Faithfulness
by Robert Barcroft
From The Reminder, June 24, 2012
When we talk about faithfulness what do we generally think about? Is it the individual that has been a member of the church all their life? Or is it the one that attends every service of the church? These examples may or may not be an indicator of faithfulness. I have known those that have been in the church all their life but were wicked. I have known some that have attended every service of the church except when they were very ill, but they too were not the Christians that they should have been. On the other hand, there are some that did not obey the gospel till late in life that were great Christians and some that had jobs that kept them from services more than they liked. So what does it mean to be faithful?
First of all we need to understand that faith is that which comes from God’s word. It is divine instruction on how to live. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing the word of God. That would then indicate that the Bible is our source of instruction. In the faith chapter (Hebrews 11) we read that by faith Noah built an ark. That means that Noah built an ark based on God’s instructions to him. It also tells us that by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted by God because it was not of faith or more specifically as not authorized by God. So it is that to be faithful we first need to have the knowledge of that which God has authorized.
Secondly it is also doing what we know that God has told us to do. True faith demands action. The examples in Hebrews eleven clearly shows that every time the Lord said do, those faithful individuals did just exactly what the Lord said to do. We cannot consider ourselves faithful if we do not obey the Lord. The Lord did not give examples of faithfulness from those that were disobedient but from those that obeyed his voice.
But faithfulness is more than obeying in a few things. Matthew 7:21-23 clearly teaches that one must obey the Lord in all that he can. The scripture says that there will be some that are doing good works that will not be saved. The reason is that they are either not doing what He commanded or are not doing all that He commanded. That is why it is so important that we serve the Lord with our all not just a small portion. Matthew 22:37,38 clearly says “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” To fall short of giving our all is not faithfulness. Luke 16:10 says this, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” This tells us that we cannot be faithful if we neglect the little things. This means that such things as attending services and Bible classes is just as important as other things that we do. In fact we need to do all that we can, in every facet of our life and not neglect anything. After all, we are not our own we are bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19,20).
We therefore need to act like it. Are you faithful?
If not, please change. If you are, please keep it up.