Heart Matters: Faithfulness

Deuteronomy 30:11-20; Luke 9:46-55; Acts 4:29-37

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

06 june 2004

Faithfulness is not a concept we seem to hold very dear anymore. We may value it in others, but it’s just too much trouble for our own lives. We can see evidence of unfaithfulness in most any aspect of society. We see marriages breaking apart due to abuse or lack of commitment. We read reports of financial irresponsibility and gross compensation disparity in the corporate world. We hear of declared Christians charged with complicity in dehumanizing prisoner abuse. We find a host of examples of unfaithfulness on the part of leaders in communities, government, and religious institutions. Faithfulness has become passé.

Faithfulness entails living up to our commitments. It is treating others with dignity, respect, care, and deference. It is doing what is right, rather than the absolute minimum that is required. “Getting by” has become our societal norm. It is the new standard for our actions and defining acceptable behavior. “What can I get away with?” is the question we use to determine our course of action. What ever happened to serving God wholeheartedly? What ever happened to seeking to do what is right and best for all?

At the end of Moses’ ministry, he called the people to remember the meaning behind their redemption. He challenged them to determine how they would live before Yahweh, who had redeemed them out of Egyptian slavery. He forced them to make a decision and take a stand. Would they be faithful to God, or would they live faithlessly?

To claim the blessings of being God’s people without faithful obedience is mockery of God’s authority. From Moses’ perspective, faithfulness to the law of Yahweh should have been a simple thing. The blessings of following Yahweh, who had redeemed them out of slavery, made any alternative unfathomable. The promises of blessing from Yahweh if the people were faithful were plenty sufficient to encourage acceptance and wholehearted service.

Faithful obedience was the expected response. Thankfulness to Yahweh should logically have brought the people to serve God faithfully. It made sense. God had proven faithful, loving, and gracious. It was up to the people, however, to determine their own commitment. They must accept their own need to be faithful, trusting Yahweh to continue to care for them and meet their needs.

Jesus spoke to this same kind of ethic in His day. The modus operandi of the religious community was to circumvent God’s will, even while fulfilling the letter of the legal mandate they had to follow. While technically faithful, they lived in abject unfaithfulness to God’s will. They were “getting by.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeatedly called for greater faithfulness and commitment to serving God and others. Jesus took the legal prescriptions of the Pentateuch and showed them to be a definition of God’s minimum requirements, rather than satisfaction of God’s will. This was a shocking pronouncement.

While the disciples were concerned with the external definitions of power and authority, Jesus called them to measure the sincerity of their service to others. He reminded them of the great importance that God gave to those who had no voice in society. They were concerned with defining who was acceptable to God, seeking to exclude any who were different or not wholly participating in their own following. Their concern for their own status prompted them to relate only to others of equal or better status. Jesus called them to look beyond their definitions of inclusiveness. He told them to accept and honor all as having worth before God. They were to embrace all God’s servants in acceptance, not just those who were in lock-step with themselves. The disciples wanted to deal in anger and retribution with those who did not accept them fully. Jesus called them to grace, mercy, peace, patience, and love.

The disciples were focused on defining faithfulness in accord with definitions of power, greatness, and control, but Jesus forced them to take a different view. He told them that greatness depended upon their faithfulness in seeking the good of others, rather than their own. Greatness does not seek personal benefit, but the benefit of others, especially those deemed inferior or unacceptable by society. It is accepting the child in accordance with God’s love. It is encouraging the stranger who seeks to serve God. It is refusing to treat others in retribution and vengeance. It is faithfully being the presence of Christ for the benefit of others. It is so focusing on fulfilling our responsibilities in serving God that our personal issues fall out of the picture.

Such was the greatness of the believers in Barnabas’ day. They focused their attention off the personal cost of following Jesus. They centered their actions on becoming faithful in sharing God’s blessings with others. They spoke God’s word boldly. They also shared their material gifts with those in need. They chose a different path of defining ownership, recognizing that God was indeed owner of their very lives. They decided to trust God’s provision and become the stewards of God’s gifts, serving others in faithfulness and sincerity.

Their lives were so wrapped up in serving God faithfully that they did not have the time or desire to seek after their own greatness or measure themselves against others. Luke records for us the story of Barnabas, but only as one example among many. Such was their faithfulness. Such was the character of their lives given in service to God and others. Barnabas’ action of selling a field in order to meet the needs of those in distress was simply the natural outcome of having surrendered his own life to faithful obedience.

The center of the lives of these disciples was the desire to speak the word of Christ with boldness. That was their prayer amid persecution and threats against their lives. They recognized that their faithfulness to serving God could not match God’s faithfulness. The chose to throw their lives upon God’s care, allowing God to meet their needs as they served in faithfulness.

While many sought to control them and to force them to conform to societal expectations, they chose to live up to their commitment to God. They chose to allow God to define what was appropriate, great, and worthy. They chose to allow God to call the shots, even at personal cost, for they accepted that God was faithful to grant them life, purpose, and fulfillment.

Has the call of discipleship and faithfulness dissipated? Is God’s call for us to be faithful to our commitments and service any different today? Is following Christ about “getting by” with the minimum that is required, or does it mean something more? How will we measure faithfulness and greatness and success and power? When we our faithfulness is challenged, how will we respond?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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