By David Faust
If others summed up your character or talents in one word, what term would they select?
We are complex individuals with many-faceted personalities, but some names bring a single word to mind. Arnold Palmer—golfer. Frank Sinatra—singer. Mother Teresa—compassion. Amelia Earhart—aviator. Michael Jordan—competitor. Lucille Ball—comedian. Thomas—doubter. Judas—betrayer.
If you could be known as good-looking, athletic, popular, or rich, would you really want those words to define your legacy? No one wants “bossy,” “manipulative,” “selfish,” or “power-hungry” written on their tombstone. Wouldn’t you rather be remembered as wise, generous, or loving?
Out of all the potential labels, this one is hard to beat: faithful.
A Profile of Faithfulness
“The fruit of the Spirit is . . . faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22, New International Version); but this quality is so rare that Solomon wondered, “A faithful person who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6). How can you identify a faithful person? What would it take to be so filled with faith that “faithful” becomes the primary descriptor of your life?
Faithfulness means loyalty. Be reliable. Faithful friends don’t stab others in the back with gossip, and loyal coworkers don’t ditch the team when they’re needed most. Ruth modeled this aspect of faithfulness by telling her mother-in-law, Naomi, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die” (Ruth 1:16-17).
Faithfulness means fidelity. Be consistent. Faithful spouses honor their wedding vows. Faithful employees show up and do their jobs. Faithful followers of Christ remain steadfast and unwavering, refusing to ride the waves of cultural compromise and be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). They consistently “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3).
Faithfulness means productivity. Be fruitful. In Jesus’ parable of the talents, the master commends the workers who used what they were given to produce more. The commendations were the same for the five-talent steward and the two-talent steward: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21, 23). But the master rebuked the man who had received one talent—not because he had less to offer, but because he was afraid to use what he had. Faithful servants produce fruit for the Master according to our potential; we don’t cower in fear and bury our talents in the ground.
Faithfulness means perseverance. Don’t quit. If you’re tempted to throw in the towel, do what Jesus did: Take the towel and use it to wash someone’s feet. Hebrews 10:23-24 contains two good reasons not to give up. (1) God isn’t quitting on you. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). (2) Others are counting on you. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
Christian musician Steve Green put it well in a song he wrote in 1988:
Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful.
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful!
Next Week: A Man of Few Words
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of Not Too Old: Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years.
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