Fruit Of The Spirit ... Faithfulness ( Part 2 )

December 10, 2015

As we rap up our look at faithfulness, we have seen and will see today that there are many ways, times, and behaviors that show faithfulness. That is why God made it a Spiritual fruit. There is no way we could be faithful and stay faithful without the Holy Spirit !!! As an example... it takes a different set of thoughts and behaviors to be faithful to your spouse than it does to be faithful to your local church. So today as we look at 5 verses from the bible try to see how the different types of faithfulness looks and how we should react !

" He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much ; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches ? "  Luke chapter 16 : 10 - 11.
The first part of this simply says that a person will be the same weather there is a little or a lot at stake. This assumes that the faithful one is filled with the spirit ! The one who is not will always be unfaithful !!  Think of people you know and see if this is not true.  The second part of this verse draws the parallel between earthly wealth and heavenly wealth. From God's view, if we can not be trusted with pieces of paper (money), then how in the world can He trust us with true wealth (Spiritual Gifts).

" And the things you have heard from Me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. "    2 Timothy 2 : 2
Here Paul is telling Timothy the secret to keeping Christianity alive !!! If  the word of God is not taught for one generation....Christianity dies. Therefore what Paul is saying is you must give the word of God to the faithful ( followers of Jesus ) so that more people can hear, accept, and follow Jesus. An unfaithful person ( Non-believer ) has no reason to be faithful in the Spiritual journey of building the kingdom of God. Based on the last verse, he is most interested in building his kingdom of mammon (money).

" For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open tomb; They flatter with their tongue. "      Psalm 5 : 9
This verse tells us one clue to watch for when deciding if a person is faithful or not. Again a person who is not saved is filled with death ! So.... all words spoken are spoken out of THEIR heart and makes their throat an open tomb for their words. They flatter all the time !  We have all met this person. They flatter you with their words only to keep your eye off of what they are doing !!

" May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. "   1 Samuel  26 : 23
There is an old joke: What does every Christian have to eat after service on Sunday ?     Roast preacher!  We should be very careful how we treat God's anointed. That does not mean only the preacher! ALL of God's children have been anointed.  When we are mistreated, God will take care of His children, just as you would take care of your own children. BUT  if you jump in to pay back, God's hands are tied !!! LET GO AND LET GOD !!!!

" So the Governors and Satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. "    Daniel  6 : 4
This show the benefit of faithfulness at work. If as a follower of Jesus you are faithful, there will be people who will look for fault with you. This is normal behavior for non-believers. Our job is to be as faithful as we can and let Jesus deal with the non-believers.  That does not mean we should be door mats, but it does mean that any type of payback on our part will tie God's hands and we will pay the price for NOT being faithful !!!

This wraps up our study on Faithfulness. As you can see there are many ways to be faithful and the best we can do is to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit control our lives and the fruit of the Spirit will be plentiful in your life !!! Join us next week as we take on another Fruit Of The Spirit. Have a blessed week !