Epaggelia

The idea of being faithful, usually falls into three different contexts for our modern vocabulary. Firstly, marriage, secondly, worship and lastly, we sometimes use the word faithful in the context of allegiance in support of an athletic team. Christ is the perfect example of what it means to be faithful from God’s perspective. He always did the will of His Father, see John 8:28-29, this is the very essence of faithfulness as a virtue, it is pleasing!

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven – only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” 

This shows us clearly, the command of Christ is to faithfully obey the will of God in Him, without this, we will not be saved in His Kingdom!

Christ was, is and will always be faithful in doing the will of God in our lives. Jesus said, 

(Matthew 23:23-24) “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law – 

justice, mercy, and _________________________. You should have done these things without neglecting the others. 

Jesus often spoke of faithfulness as the exact opposite of honesty, see Luke 16:10-11.

“The one who is _________________ in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven’t been 

_______________________ in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? 

So to be honest with the gifts God gives us, and also to be obedient to the commands Christ has for us, is the essence of faithfulness as a virtue of Christ in the Christian.

Are we honest with our spouse?

Are we honest with our income?

Do we have integrity in ourselves, when faced with the commands of Christ? Faithfulness is not measured by the number of times we attend worship services in a year, but it is measured by what we do during worship. Loyal love in our hearts towards Christ for all he is, has done and will do is the driving force behind real faithfulness.

The answers to these questions help us evaluate our own faithfulness. A virtue the world does not emphasize. We must rely on Christ’s Spirit to grow His fruit, Gal. 5:22-23, which includes faithfulness.