Fundamental Faithfulness
In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul is inspired to write the following: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Among the several components which together make up the fruit of the Spirit which is to be evident in our lives because of our walk with Christ, it would seem that the component of faithfulness would be easy to experience. Since our walk with Christ comes only by faith in Him, it would seem then that faith would continue and grow into faithfulness. In fact, it should but faithfulness does not come easily and never comes without some fundamental changes in our lives.
Faithfulness requires fundamental commitment to that which is Godly. Yet this is easier said than done because commitment to that which is Godly is contrary to our humanness. Often we find we can go some small distance in faith with God but going the whole distance is much more difficult.
Take for example the sacred institution of marriage. Statistics inform us that the break in faithfulness in marriages of church goers is the same as those who claim no relationship with Christ. The divorce rates are the same for church going marriages as those of the non-church going crowd. Consider that there is a call to faithfulness in the church going crowd while the non church going crowd has no such call. Despite the understanding among church goers that we are called to live faithfully and to live by Christ’s power on a higher plane, ultimately it appears there is no difference between church goers and non-church goers as it regards the experience of divorce. Why? Isn’t the answer in the fact that our humanity with its sinful tendencies gets in the way of our staying in a marriage when the going gets tough or we become unhappy.
Our humanity tells us that we have a right to be happy and that we should not have to bear too much pain. It doesn’t matter that we stood before the minister at our wedding and vowed before God and man to stay married “for better or worse” (i.e. words of faithfulness). I know that newlyweds have a hard time believing that the “worse” will come but it does. Doesn’t the worse include having a spouse who “falls out of love” with us or even worse, us falling out of love with our spouse? Doesn’t the phrase “for better or for worse” cover all of the circumstances which give rise to the often used excuse for divorce, “we grew apart”?
Faithfulness is fundamental to experiencing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives because faithfulness is a fundamental part of the nature of God which He wants to share with us. God is faithful. He keeps His word. He never breaks His promise, no matter what the cost to Him is personally. For example, He kept His promise to rescue us from our sins but it cost Him His Son. God will keep every promise He has ever made.
Yet it is hard for humans to keep their promises. We always find an excuse to give us a reason to break our promises. Yet God develops in us or wants to develop in us faithfulness which is to become foundational to our spiritual experience. We learn from Him to keep our word, our commitments and our promises. Fundamental Faithfulness means to learn God’s way when our humanity tells us to quit, to break our words or to forsake our vows.
One of the most memorable graduation addresses I heard was delivered by Bob Russell, former minister of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He spoke at a small Christian school and shared some background to his being at the school for that occasion. Bob who is an avid golfer, remarked that within days of accepting the offer to speak at the graduation, he was approached by certain golfing friends with an opportunity to play golf at the exclusive Augusta National Golf Course, the famed Georgia home of the Masters Golf Tournament. It was a once in a lifetime invitation. The problem was that the weekend available to him to play golf at Augusta was also the weekend of the graduation ceremony of the small Christian school to which he had already made a commitment. Bob’s graduation address focused on being faithful, no matter the cost. Bob spoke from experience because he had to choose between the once in a lifetime golf outing and speaking to a few hundred people at the graduation.
When we walk with God we learn of Him that keeping our word and our commitments leads to the highest order of life. We learn that keeping our promises even with accompanying and unexpected painful cost brings a level of satisfaction not otherwise gained.
My wife and I have a very strong marriage. It is my belief that should either of us become ill the other will faithfully minister to the one who is sick despite the sickness and the pain in both of us brought in the ministry by way of that sickness. We have had reason recently to be in several nursing home situations and have witnessed the beautiful testimony of husbands and wives ministering to their stricken spouses who not only do not know who the spouse is any more, they are often violent towards them because of the diseases (such as Alzheimer’s disease). It is sad but also incredible to see a husband feed his wife like a baby is fed. It is heartwarming and Godly to see a wife tend to the needs of her husband who has no idea who she is or that she is even there. That is faithfulness.
Fundamental Faithfulness is experienced when we allow God to change the core of who we are and we keep our word and every inference which flows from the promises we make.
eMullins
