What does faithfulness mean in the bible

The root idea is that one has fidelity toward another person or toward God. Many of these passages speak of God as faithful in order to comfort and encourage Christians. The faithful person is steadfast, unchanging, and thoroughly grounded in relation to the other. This sort of fidelity, or faithfulness, is used in both the Old Testament and the New Testament to describe God's relation to the world and to describe the quality of relationship that Israel and Christians are called upon to have with God and with one another.

See Faith ; Trust; Trustworthy. All rights reserved. Probably the most common form of faithfulness that comes to mind is in our marriage relationships. The Bible tells us that spouses should be faithful to one another. Husbands and wives are meant to serve each other and love one another. Another way we can show faithfulness is in our friendships. The Bible deeply values friendships and there are many instances of loyalty between friends.

Our faithfulness to God means trusting in Him and loving Him through all circumstances. It means thinking well of them, instead of assuming the worst of their intentions. It means offering Godly counsel, and building them up when they feel weak.

God promises to give us strength when we need it! Isaiah At a revival in Florida God just really poured out a blessing at that meeting. It was late on a Saturday night, and I was returning through the South Florida swamps on a road back in "the boondocks. I was driving an old Volkswagen that had an auxiliary tank you would use just in case you ran out of gasoline in the first tank. It didn't even have a gas gauge.

That night, I had forgotten that I was already on the second tank. How can you leave behind a godly legacy? In this very personal message, speaking from his heart, Dr. Rogers shared specific instructions. Every morning Joyce and I have prayed for our children and grandchildren by name. Every day. God's faithfulness is :. There is no one word in ancient Hebrew that consistently corresponds with 'faithfulness'.

Hebrew meaning, like English, is much determined by context. When used in parallel or context with Heb. The word Chesed itself implies faithfulness or steadfastness.

This combination is very common in the Hebrew Scriptures, for example, Psalm , 2 Samuel , Lamentations , Psalm , and Hosea Israel failed miserably, being guilty of all manner of faithlessness. So great was their faithlessness that God sundered the relationship. Perhaps nowhere is Israel's faithlessness shown more vividly than in Hosea Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and expose her, as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

I will not have mercy on her children for they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, "I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink. God calls upon the church to succeed where Israel failed, yet currently, the Church of God is badly divided and so widely scattered that it can almost be called shattered. Surely this derives from the unfaithfulness in attitude and conduct reflected in the past 25 years of the church's existence.

Leviticus clearly shows that scattering results from faithless commandment-breaking, and a vomiting out of the mouth another metaphor for scattering is evidence of inconsistency and instability of attitude.

We have not held faith with our covenantal responsibilities! Jesus proclaims in Matthew that in the time immediately preceding His return in all the power and glory of God, His church will have gone to sleep and faithlessly allowed its oil to run low. Is that the attitude of faithful stewards of the mysteries of God? We are all guilty because, as the parable shows, all ten virgins went to sleep.

But even as all ten slept, it is also possible that all ten can repent. What is the attitude, or what qualities in us should correspond to the faithfulness of God? Paul writes in Hebrews , "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

It is understood as "reliable" or "trustworthy" rather than "fidelity" because it is being fully convicted of the truth of God that engenders loyalty and dependability.

Faith in God corresponds to God's faithfulness. As with two tuning forks of the same pitch, when one is struck, the other responds by vibrating also. God's faithfulness should awaken faith in us, so we can respond in submissive obedience. If He is worth trusting, we should trust Him. Since God is faithful, it has become our responsibility to imitate Him in being faithful by committing our lives to well doing.

In II Corinthians , Paul demonstrates from his own life what this means:. Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. Does God speak and not act? Even Balaam understood that when God's Word goes forth, it accomplishes what He sent it to do. There is no ambiguity on this matter; God's promises are sure.

He never deceives, and there is never inconsistency or fickleness in Him. He is always true. Jesus called Himself "the truth" John , and in Revelation His title is "the faithful and true witness. Similarly, Paul states that his, Silvanus' and Timothy's declarations, their preaching about God, were also faithful, unvarnished, unexaggerated and uncolored. They did not change the truth or shade it in any way. Jesus says He came into this world to bear witness to the truth John Paul felt he was under sacred obligation to do the same and maintain a character of the strictest veracity in every respect.

Perhaps our greatest obligation on earth is for us to imitate our Redeemer's faithfulness. It does not become an individual who professes to trust in the faithful God to be shifty and unreliable in word and deed.

This is a very high pinnacle for us to strive for, but we must try, though we know we will not be saved as a result. Perhaps because we know our salvation does not depend on our works, there is a subtle persuasion not to be as careful as we should. Again, Paul gives us direction in this regard:. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.

Matthew Considering the context, this instruction tells us that it is the faithful Christian who will be ready for Christ's coming. He will be ever alert to the times in which he lives and will pattern his life accordingly, making effort to be found faithful. Verse 47 promises God will reward the faithful for these efforts.

Because God is faithful, the strength to be faithful is promised to us. Hebrews assures us, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Ritenbaugh Forerunner , "Personal," September-October If any term catches the essence of mankind's character at the end of the age, it is "faithlessness. In II Timothy , the apostle Paul describes the spirit of people at the end of the age: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God , having a form of godliness but denying its power.

When counseling a person for baptism , the ministry almost always takes him through Luke , where Jesus states unequivocally, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate [love less] his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. What Does It Mean? Faithlessness in the End Time The apostle Paul writes that "evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" II Timothy An Overview of God's Faithfulness As with all the fruit of the Spirit, God Himself is the model we must study for examples of faithfulness to encourage us to trust and to emulate Him.

Paul responds with a similar statement in II Timothy For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

No wonder James exclaims: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.