Here are two classical passages in the New Testament on stewardship. In each one we see that “faithfulness” is emphasized. This amazing quality is the seventh in the graces of the wonderful fruit of the Spirit named in Galatians, chapter five.
The first passage begins in I Corinthians 4:1, Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing against myself; yet am I hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God.
This passage closely relates to I Peter 4:10, according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God; if any man ministereth, ministering as of the strength which God supplieth: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and dominion for ever and ever.
We are all familiar with the first of the gifts and their importance; love, joy, peace, and so forth. The seventh gift is translated in the King James as faith, but almost invariably is translated otherwise as faithfulness. The greek word “pistos” is a very common word. It means the faith which is absolute trust, absolute self-surrender, absolute confidence, absolute obedience in regard to Jesus Christ. In both the revised version and the revised standard version of the Bible, it is translated faithfulness. Moffet and Phillips, in their translations have it “honesty.” Perhaps one of the best translations would be simply “loyalty” or “faithfulness.” This is a characteristic adjective by which all the good and loyal servants in the Word of God have been described. I’ve noticed over and over again that whenever one of the early New Testament ministries was mentioned, this quality of faithfulness was reiterated. That is so important.
And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Luke 12:42.
In a study of success, recently, there was a scientific endeavor to determine what quality it was that caused men to succeed over their fellow men. They found that many times, those who were great successes were not more brilliant nor more gifted than those who failed. Sometimes the failures ranked higher in their IQ or their natural qualities than would normally make for success. So, they looked for the quality that brings success. They found that many a brilliant man gave up after several failures. But, time and time again, the man who was a success would get up, dust himself off after a few set backs and he’d plow right on to success. It is that quality we call faithfulness—faithfulness to the visions, faithfulness to the objectives that he had in life.
Almost everyone of us is guilty at some time or other of thinking that our goals are unobtainable and we look around to find some other goal. We look for something else that is a little easier to attain.
This reminds me of a fellow who was on a ship. He’d never served at the helm before, so the captain put him there and said to him, “Now, you see that star in the sky?” and pointed out a certain constellation, “You just steer the ship toward that.” Well, in time the fellow got off the course. The boat was almost completely turned around. He called the captain and he said, “Captain, you’ll have to give me another star. I’ve already passed that one.” Well, he hadn’t passed it, he was going in the other direction, so that the objective star was now to be seen over his shoulder. Now, isn’t that true of a lot of us? We think we have passed our objectives, or they are not worthy of our effort; in truth, we have turned aside from them and we have missed them. We want to “fight a good fight, to finish the course, to keep the faith,” as the Apostle Paul said.
Faithfulness, however is not always inherent in an individual. There is much in us that wants to be a quitter. There is, what psychologists call “the will to fail”—the death wish. These things are constantly warring in us. Some people delight in being discouraged. I think they enjoy it. They like to lament, “I have this problem and that problem.” Or they make a good excuse for themselves and thus excuse the effort—that supreme effort to press on and do the thing that they know their life is designated for, in the will of God.
This great subject of faithfulness has been very much upon my mind and heart. I believe that it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is a result of something the Spirit grows in your life, not apart from it. When God has wrought faithfulness in you, it will be woven into the very fabric and thread of your life. You will be a faithful man in all things. As you press on to do the will of God, you’ll find that almost every reward, everything that God gives you is in this persistent, digging expression of our faith, which we call “faithfulness.”
Paul uses this term “faithfulness,” about himself in I Timothy 1:12, I thank him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to his service; it is more important that a minister be faithful than he be brilliant. Again, as Paul writes to Timothy in II Timothy 2:2, he says, And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. It is important that they commit the word of God in that first century of Christianity to faithful men, who would be able to teach others also.
Paul also wrote to Timothy, in I Timothy 6:20, O Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee, turn away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called. Do we understand what the Word of God is trying to bring to us on this? God has made a deposit within us. God has given us a charge. No man has ever received any speck of truth from God but what that became a stewardship. He must have a faithful heart, to always hold before Him the objectives that the Word of God has stirred within his heart. He must be faithful to live it, faithful to speak it forth to others.
Now, there may be something in connection with this that I think could strengthen us a great deal. We need not take the House of God as something that is there for our convenience whenever we wish to go, whenever we wish to take advantage of it, or at the whim of the day to grace the church with our presence. It is that kind of an attitude that is a great deterent to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. I feel that faithfulness among the people of the Lord, immediately strengthens that church and gives it an out-reach, gives it a strong hand to reach the world for God.
In the book of Revelation 1:5, Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood, and in Revelation 19:11, And I saw the heavens opened; and behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. You have just read the message on our “faithfulness” showing how it has been wrought within the lives of all the men in the Word of God whom God has dealt with. When we speak the word “faithfulness” in reference to an individual, we are claiming for him one of the glorious attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, Jesus is called the faithful witness and the Faithful and True.
In the past and even today we hear a great deal of emphasis in preaching that magnifies the individual to such a place that we lose sight of the faithfulness of the Lord. I am more concerned about exalting the faithfulness of the Lord in strengthening us than I am in exalting the individual’s strength to exercise his faithfulness in serving God. I think Paul’s estimate of our abilities was well worded when he said, I know in me, (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing. He was conscious of the failures and weaknesses that were inherent within the human nature. He realized that we would not be able to serve God and be faithful Christians apart from the help of God. It becomes the grace of God that imparts to us faithfulness, through the inner workings of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is called, “the merciful and faithful high priest.” We read in Hebrews 2:17, Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. This is important for it is the faithfulness of the Lord that enables us to be forgiven.
Hebrews 7:25 says, Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. It becomes then, the great work of the Lord to constantly and faithfully intercede and pray to the Father on our behalf. That is why he is called, “the One who is faithful and true.”
We are not faithful because we determine to be so, for there are too many factors which constantly discourage and harass the deeper motives and desires of a man to be a Christian. There are too many things to cause him in a moment of weakness to throw up his hands and give up the whole thing. So what is it that causes a man to press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?
What is it that gives him strength in the hour of his weakness when everything within him cries out to turn aside, he perseveres? It is the deep thing that God is able to work within a man’s life that gives him faith to go on. We must not seek an easy course. We must ask God, “Lord, You work within me a faithfulness so that I’ll be able to faithfully walk with you” There are many rival things within us, things that call within the breast for recognition. We all want to be well spoken of, we all want everything to go smooth for us. None of us like to be persecuted. None of us like tension or pressure as we are trying to break into truth or into a walk with God. None of us like diligence, the sometimes long hours of sweat and work in order to see things accomplished. But nevertheless, we must persevere.
Someone has said, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” But I would like to amend that. Many a man has a strong will, but that will seems to be set first in one direction, then another. It is a vacillating will. The will is strong enough and stubborn enough but something needs to be worked down deep within the heart that serves as a regulator that serves as a ballast as the ship is being tossed by the waves and the storm; and that we call “Faithfulness.”
I want you to grasp how that this faithfulness has its origin in God—that God our Father is the ever faithful One and thus He becomes a source of our faithfulness and our perseverance. A number of scriptures point this out to us.
I Corinthians 1:19, God is faithful, through whom ye are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
In I Corinthians 10:13, There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.
II Corinthians 1:19, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus, and Timothy was not yea and nay, but in him is yea. It was a faithful word. It was not yes nor no, or a vacillating word, but the Word of God is yea.
In I Thessalonians 5:24, it says, Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it. God who has called you to serve Him will be faithful to stand by and work His will within your life.
We see in II Thessalonians 3:3, But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one.
Hebrews 10:32, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not: for he is faithful that promised.
I see in all of this, that it is the faithfulness of the Lord that stands back of us. If we want to trust God and we want to serve Him, to go on into a more holy, deeper life with God; if that hunger after God is there, God is faithful to help us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9.
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. I Peter 4:19. A faithful God is looking after us, watching over us in all things.
The reason I have given these passages of Scripture on the great subject of faithfulness is that I might paint the picture of our Lord’s faithfulness; of the Heavenly Father’s faithfulness as the source of the faithfulness with which we would serve God. We must press on. If there is sin in our life, let us not despair; let us confess our sins and call upon God for forgiveness. The word says, He is faithful and righteous to forgive and to cleanse. He is faithful to do it. He will never fail. There will be no turning aside of those that come unto the Lord for Jesus said, All that which the Father giveth me will come unto me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6:37. God is faithful in the hour of temptation. He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able. God is faithful to set the boundaries on the temptations and testings that you will face, so that you will know that you will be able to bear them.
If your life has been filled with many failures and repeated discouragements, look to God and say, “God, work your faithfulness in me, that I too might be a faithful steward; that one day you might say to me, Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord.
Psalm 1:2–3
… his delight is in the law of the Lord; And on his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.