If you had a car that failed to start every seventh day, you wouldn’t call it faithful. If you had a watch that was usually accurate but failed once every ten days, you wouldn’t keep it. If your hot water heater greeted you with cold water every fourth morning, you wouldn’t consider it very reliable.

Faithful means “trustworthy, dependable, or reliable”. Put in the context of people, it’s someone who doesn’t quit, even in the face of problems and trials. There are several people mentioned in the New Testament who were faithful in service to the Lord: Timothy (1 Corinthians 4:17), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21), Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), Onesimus (Colossians 4:9), Silvanus (1 Peter 5:12), and Antipas (Revelation 2:13).

Some Christians are as undependable at attending the worship of God and helping in the work of the church as the items mentioned above. Doesn’t it feel a bit hypocritical that when we don’t have things that are faithful we replace them? But we expect God to keep accepting and rewarding us when we’re so far from faithful it’s not funny! Remember the words of Jesus: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

Kyle Campbell