The Fruit of Faithfulness

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

When I think of the word Faithful, I can’t help thinking of those words Jesus spoke, which are recorded for us in Matt. 25:21,23

Matthew 25:23 NKJV

23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

As we love and serve Christ through our lives, we want to be faithful servants. And that is what we can be, says Paul, if we allow the Holy Spirit to bear this portion of his fruit in our lives. But what does it mean? I think there are two connected elements in the word “faithfulness.”

On the one hand, being faithful means being trustworthy and dependable. A faithful person is a person of honesty and integrity, someone you can rely on. Faithful people keep their word. They do what they promise. They can be trusted not to cheat or deceive.

On the other hand, being faithful means exercising that kind of trustworthy behavior over a long period of time. Faithful people have proved that they can be trusted for the long haul. You don’t have to check up on them. You don’t have to worry that, even if they did a good job last week, they might let you down this week. No, faithful people show that they are routinely dependable in all kinds of ways and all kinds of circumstances.

Faithfulness is the character of somebody you know you can simply rely on all the time.

And that, surely, is exactly the truth about God. That’s why faithfulness is the fruit of God’s Spirit at work in us.

THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD

Can you think of anything the Bible says about God more often than this? One of the oldest poems in the Bible describes God as “the Rock,” and highlights the qualities that inspired that metaphor:

Deuteronomy 32:3–4 NKJV

3 For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God. 4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

The Psalms celebrate it all over the place:

Psalm 25:10 NKJV

10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.

Psalm 33:4–5 NKJV

4 For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 36:5 NKJV

5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Suppose you could have come alongside the Israelites who wrote songs like that, and you were able to ask them, “Excuse me, but how do you know that? How can you be so sure that the Lord your God is so faithful?” I think they would have taken you aside, made you sit down, and told you their story—meaning the great story of the people of Israel in the Old Testament.

Look again at those descriptions of God in Psalm 33—faithfulness, justice, protection, strength and love.

Just take a closer look at this Ps. (NOT ON THE SCREEN)

Psalm 33 NKJV

1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. 3 Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. 4 For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. 10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance. 13 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. 14 From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; 15 He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works. 16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 17 A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, 19 To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. 22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.

“You asked about the Lord’s faithfulness?” your Israelite friend might say.

“He kept his promise to Abraham when he brought us up out of Egypt. “

You asked about God’s justice?

“He showed that in bringing judgment on the Egyptians for their economic exploitation and genocidal oppression of our ancestors.”

You asked about his love?

“Listen to how God put up with us, in all our grumbling and rebellion in the wilderness; how he gave us food and water and kept us safe from our enemies. That’s how I know that God is faithful. Come and sing the psalm with me!”

The Israelites knew their stories and kept on singing about God’s faithfulness, simply because God had proved it through the long centuries of their history.

They knew God could be trusted, because he’d kept every promise he’d ever made.

So even when the Israelites were suffering under God’s judgment for their sin, they still came back and appealed to this characteristic of God and pleaded with him to be faithful to his promises of restoration. God would be faithful. He would keep his promises.

“Great is thy faithfulness.” We just got through singing that together to our faithful God. And did you know that those words from that hymn actually come right in the middle of the book of Lamentations (Lam 3:23). And that book emerged at the most terrible moment of Israel’s Old Testament history, when Jerusalem had been destroyed, the temple burnt, and the people sent in exile under God’s judgment because of their sin.

Yet even in those horrendous circumstances, even when they were suffering the consequences of their own unfaithfulness, they could still affirm the eternal faithfulness of God.

So those words come as a shaft of light in the midst of the appalling darkness of the chapters that surround them in the book of Lamentations. God can be trusted, even when hope and faith seem shattered on the rocks of sin and suffering.

The apostle Paul knew those Scriptures, of course, in the depth of his heart and memory. So it is not surprising that he often reminds his readers of God’s faithfulness, now proved even more fully in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

1 Corinthians 1:9 NKJV

9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV

13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 NKJV

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

So, God can be trusted. That’s for sure.

But can God’s people be trusted? Sadly, not much.

The story of Old Testament Israel is one of their repeated unfaithfulness to God.

Israel’s unfaithfulness to Yahweh their covenant God is portrayed in the prophets (Hosea and Jeremiah especially) as unfaithfulness in a marriage. And we know that marital unfaithfulness creates pits of betrayal, ingratitude, and pain. That’s what God felt when his own faithfulness collided with Israel’s unfaithfulness.

Now let’s be careful here too. We should not feel self-righteous in condemning the Old Testament Israelites, for the history of the Christian church has not been much better.

The unfaithfulness of God’s people over the centuries, and the remarkable contrasting faithfulness of God to his people in spite of their failures, is one of the clearest and most constant threads running through both the Bible and church history.

Unfaithfulness is the fruit of man not the fruit of God. That is why we need to maintain a cultivating attitude towards the Fruits of the Spirit. We need God active in our lives to remain faithful.

The Spiritual Fruit of faithfulness includes loyalty, which means wholehearted, whole life allegiance, born out of love and sustained by constant gratitude.

That kind of commitment includes unwavering faithfulness to Christ himself, of course, as our Lord and Savior. It also means faithfulness to the Bible, faithfulness to the gospel, faithfulness to the church, and faithfulness to the work God has given you to do. It means faithfulness to the mission of God in the world and to all those who are engaged in it along with you.

Faithfulness means you know what you really believe, whom you really love, and what you are ultimately committed to. Faithfulness means being sure of what you want to live for and what you’re willing to die for.

Can you this morning with a clear conscience say that your faithfulness reflects the faithfulness of God. If so, you are know that only that kind of faithful comes straight from God and He alone deserves all the Glory and honor for that fruit in your life.

Again like all the fruits of the Spirit, they originate from Him…Because God alone is the faithful one, and we are simply to abide in Christ day by day moment by moment minute by minute.

And remember it is only this kind of faith that pleases Him.

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

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