Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is…faithfulness.
Who is the most reliable person you know? Someone who is always there for you, ready to jump in and get busy. Trustworthy. Loyal. Constant. Dependable. Devoted. Are you that somebody in another person’s life? Perhaps for your spouse or your children? Are you that kind of friend? Employee? Employer? Church member?
In Christianity, faithfulness is most often related to our trust in God, be that for salvation or relying on His power and sovereignty in our lives. We cast all of our faith, not on what we can do to save ourselves, but on what God has already accomplished through Christ. In that regard, faithfulness is about putting all of that weight on God and none of it on ourselves. With respect to this aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit, it is quite the opposite. In the original Greek it is the word pistis, which simple means trustworthiness. God’s children are to be as reliable as He is, especially with respect to one another.
My word is my bond.
“The ability to serve God faithfully through the years and through the temptations of life is not something we achieve by heroic virtue. It comes from the Spirit” (Morris). As Americans, we are results oriented, but as Christians, we are called to be faithful and leave the results to God. To stick with a godly endeavor for days, weeks, months, or even years…without seeing any tangible results…requires today’s fruit of faithfulness. The famous missionary, William Carey, did not baptize his first convert until seven years into his efforts. He had been called to reach the lost in India and he was faithful to that calling.
By the time William Carey died, he had spent 41 years in India without a break to head home to America. His missionary work could count only some 700 converts in a nation of millions, but he had laid an amazing foundation of Bible translations, education, and social reform. His greatest legacy? The worldwide missionary movement of the nineteenth century that he inspired. Missionaries like Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone, among thousands of others, were impressed not only by Carey’s example, but by his words “Expect great things; attempt great things.” He was faithful to the end.
Yes, we need to be faithful in our service to God, but also in our service to one another as fellow Christians…as well as being reliable as a way to love our neighbors well. Jesus commanded us to “let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37). We should never need to “promise” to do something for a family member or a friend—we either can, or we can’t. We either will, or we won’t. As this fruit matures, we will be known by our reliability, just as God is known by His.
