“… through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9).
To be faithful is to be trustworthy, dependable, reliable. God and His Son are both described as faithful in many passages. Peter calls the Father “a faithful Creator” (1 Pet. 4:19). Of the Son, John wrote that He is “the faithful witness” and Him who is “Faithful” (Revelation 1; 19:11). Let us consider some of the passages which tells of God’s faithfulness.
Second Timothy 3:11-13 says, “Faithful is the saying: for if we died with him, we shall also live with him, if we endure, we shall also reign with him, if we shall deny him, he also will deny us: if we are faithless, he abideth faithful for he cannot deny himself.” This passages that God keeps His words to us … He speaks to both obedient and disobedient, promising blessings to the obedient and retribution to the wicked, the disobedient. If God is “faithful,” He keeps His word whether it is a promise of blessings to the obedient; or a warning of punishment to those who ignore His warnings.
First Corinthians 10:13 is God’s assurance that God will not allow us to be tempted above what we are able to bear. What consolation! In 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Paul wrote, “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it.” In this instance, God faithfully will both sanctify and preserve us entire. In 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 brethren were asked to “pray for us, that the word of God may run and be glorified, even as it is also with you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men, for all have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and guard you from the evil one.” In Hebrews 10:23 brethren were urged “and let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not, for he is faithful that promised.” Our hope is based upon God’s promise to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life. That was their hope; it is also our hope. God is faithful to keep that promise and elsewhere Paul stated he was in “hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal” (Titus 1:3).
In 1 John 1:9 we find God’s assurance: “If we confess our sins, he is faith and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In the passage of our text we are assured that “God is faithful.” Preceding these words are these: “Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be unreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8). God’s faithfulness in this text is that He will confirm us and keep us unreprovable. He will not do this unconditionally for we are told, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7).
The peace and assurance Christians can have are no more secure than their confidence in God’s promises. If we have no confidence that He both can and will do the things He promises, we will doubt and fall away. One of the strong factors which keep us faithful to God is our faith in His faithfulness: on one hand, that confidence will cause us to try harder to do as He bides us because we believe His promises to give life to us if we do. On the other hand, our full assurance that He will punish us with everlasting destruction should we be faithless is a great incentive to us to live, soberly, righteously and godly. Let us never forget — God is faithful!
Jim McDonald
