Faithfulness in a Time of Compromise
For Meditation
“Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God my Father / There is no shadow of turning with thee.” So goes the opening lines of one of the most well-known hymns, taken straight from Lamentations 3:23 (We’ll sing it this Sunday!). Faithfulness is one of the most often used descriptions of God throughout the whole Bible. “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds” (Psalm 36:5). God’s faithfulness is a key component of the way God loves. God’s love is not rooted in his whims and emotions, how he feels about us at any particular day depending on our behavior. God’s love is rooted in the making and keeping of promises. God willingly binds himself to his world and his people, and God doesn’t let go. His character toward us is reliable, steadfast, constant, dependable, trustworthy, and true. Our own lack of faithfulness does nothing to threaten his own commitment to us. "If we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Tim 11:13). God’s faithfulness is supremely demonstrated in Jesus, who endures unspeakable suffering to fulfill his promise to us. God’s faithfulness is the ground of our knowledge of our past forgiveness, and God’s faithfulness is the ground of our hope for the future of our world. Without the faithfulness of God, we are lost at sea, wandering in the dark. His faithfulness is everything.
So it’s not surprising that faithfulness is part of the fruit of the Spirit, since God’s desire is to make us more like himself. Being faithful in our time is incredibly challenging. We are formed in a culture that values the happiness and fulfillment of individuals more than it does the value of our commitment and word. A culture of consumerism has shaped us to believe that when our needs are not being met, we are obliged to shift our commitments to find a more fulfilling option, whether that be a new job, a new church, or a new spouse. In a society that traffics in impermanence, ephemerality and disposability, being faithful for the long haul is incredibly out of step.
And yet this is part of the character of Christ that the Spirit wants to shape in us. Faithfulness, like all the virtues, is a first a gift that God gives us through the gospel, as we experience God’s enduring faithfulness to us. His faithfulness is the power for all our commitments. But faithfulness is also a task we give ourselves to, especially in the way we speak truth with our words, remain committed to our promises, and exhibit integrity with our lives.
As you prepare for worship this Sunday, meditate on Psalm 40 and reflect on what it proclaims to us about the faithfulness of God in our trouble.
Galatians 5:22–23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
Matthew 25:23
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”