Faithfulness Is Required

Posted by Stacy Siedlecki on January 17th, 2007 filed in Teachings

Faithfulness is Required

Stacy D. Siedlecki
01/09/07
Faithfulness is key in life as a son or daughter of God.
What is faithfulness?

pis-tos’
From G3982; objectively trustworthy; subjectively trustful: - believe (-ing, -r), faithful (-ly), sure, true.

Faithfulness is translated 10 different ways in the New Testament:
Believes - 1 time
Believing - 1 time
Believe - 2 times
Believed - 2 times
Believeth - 2 times
Man - 1 time
True - 1 time
Sure - 1 time
Faithfully - 1 time
Faithful - 42 times

Were gonna take a look at a few of these. At how God is faithful, how other men and woman of God were faithful, and how were to be faithful.

Act 13:33-34

Here the word Sure is the same greek word for faithful.
“I will give you the sure (faithful) mercies of David.”
Well, this made me wonder, what are the mercies of David.

2Ch 6:42
Isa 55:3

That word “mercies” in hebrew is
kheh’-sed
From H2616; kindness; by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opprobrium) reproof, or (subjectively) beauty: - favour, good deed (-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity, reproach, wicked thing.

God will make that sure (faithful) mercies (favour) of David. David had great favour in God’s eyes. If we can get any of that, I’ll be happy to take it.
Our God is a faithful God.

1Co 10:13

God is Faithful. God is Trustworthy and trustful. God is SURE.

1Th 5:23-24
Not only is he faithful. He will do what he is faithful to do. God will carry it out because he is faithful.
2Th 3:1-3

BUT - all men have not faith, BUT the Lord is faithful. He will be faithful to keep us from evil. And we have faith and confidence in this to be true.

2Th 3:4-5
He is faithful to us, even when we screw up and do not return that same faithfulness to Him.

2Ti 2:10-13

I tell ya what, vs 13 makes me pretty greatful and thankful that he is continually faithful. It says
“If we believe not YET he is faithful, he cannot deny himself. It’s a good thing cuz otherwise we would be in a bad way.

God is faithful in all things. In his word and in his promises. For example, in his word…

Tit 1:9
A Gainsayer is one who contradicts. Who speaks or acts against.
The faithful word is the word of God. Someone who was taught the word is able to exort and convince the gainsayers by that faithful word.
So we know that God’s word is faithful.

And in his promises, He is also faithful…
Heb 10:23

He is faithful that promised. He will be faithful to carry out his word. To carry out his promises.

He is also faithful to forgive us.
1Jo 1:9

So we know that God is faithful. Well the word speaks of many faithful men and woman of God. Who are they. It’s important to take note and see those who were faithful. To see our examples.

Take a look at Abraham in Romans:
Rom 4:18-21

Abraham was faithful to the promise that he was told would come to pass. Take a look at vs. 21.

Rom 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

It doesn’t say he would perform it. It doesn’t say, should or might perform it. It says he was able to perform. That means that if God promises something, he is able. And if he is able, why in the world would we expect him not to. Abraham expected. I you go back to the vs 18, it says that he against hope believed in hope. Hope is the greek word

el-pece’ - means expectation or anticipation

He against expectation, believed in expectation. He expected it. Abraham was faithful to God’s promise and got God’s promise.
Who else was involved? Sarah. Turn to Heb. 11 and we can see what it says about Sarah.

Heb 11:11

It says that she recieved the promise of God BECAUSE she judged him (God) faithful who had promised. That is why she recieved. Because she beleived him to be faithful.
Taking a look at another faithful man of the Bible.

Heb 3:5

One really cool thing about this verse is that it states that Moses was faithful. But how do we know that? Because it was a testimony of those things which were spoken after. He was known for this. Faithfulness was his reputation. What do you want your reputation to be?

Other people in the word that were considered faithful:
I Cor. 4:17 - Timothy
Eph. 6:21 - Tychicus
Col. 1:7 - Ephaphras
Col. 4:7,9 - Tychicus and Onesimus
1 Pet. 5:12 - Silvanus

Now speaking of Paul
I Timothy 1:1-15

God knew that Paul would be faithful to carry out his minsitry work for him. Paul was faithful to God by sharing what He has done for us. It’s his job. It is his responsiblity. And he was faithful in that job.
I think that Paul is a great lead into how WE are to be faithful.

Matthew 25:14-29
Take a look at verses 21 and 23.

Why is he going to make him ruler over many things?
Because he was faithful. Not just faithful, but faithful over few things. That’s it. Just a few things. Therefor, he will be give rule over many things. Thats a great promise.

Luk 16:10-12

Here again we see that he who is faithful in the least, is faithful in much. And the same goes for the unjust. Unjust meaning wicked. He that is wicked in least will be wicked in much.
And in vs. 12, if you are not faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own. It’s not all about you and your business. It’s all around you. It’s dealing with others.

1Ti 4:9 This is a trustworthy, truthful saying.
1Ti 4:10-11
In vs. 11 - I don’t request, I don’t suggest. I command and I teach.

1Ti 4:12

The word believers here is our greek word pistos.
So be an example of the faithful.
And it’s so wonderful how God sets it up for us. How he makes it so black and white. What are some things that it says to be faithful in according to this verse?

In word
Conversation
Charity
Spirit
Faith
Purity

We don’t have to guess. We don ‘t have to take a stab in the dark as to what we should be faithful in.
I want to be sure that I’m explaining this correctly. There is a large difference between being faithful in something and to something. We are faithful to God. Our allegiance is to God. We are not faithful to our Job, we are faithful in our job. We are not faithful to our manager, your are faithful in all that you do for your manager. God is faithful to us, therefore, we are to be faithful to him and faithful in the lives that we are living for him. When working with believers or not. We are to be faithful.

3Jo 1:1-5

I wasn’t sure whether that word strangers was speaking of unbelievers or not. So I took a look at some other scripture. I recalled a very familiar verse. One that i’m sure is familiar to you as well.

Eph 2:19

The word strangers here is the same as in 3 John.
So it is unbelievers that are being spoken of in 3 John 1:5. Do whatever you do, whether to believer or unbeliever faithfully. We are known by our fruit. If we are to be known to unbelievers with good fruit, that requires faithfulness.

I want to take a look at one final scripture and we’ll close here.

1Co 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
1Co 4:2 Moreoverit is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

It is what of stewards?
It is what of stewards?

REQUIRED

It is required that a man be found faithful. I looked all throughout the Word. Nowhere is there anything else that is REQUIRED. We are beseeched, we are requested, we are persuaded, we are even commanded of different things. But no where else does it say that something is absolutely required. No where but here.
This is what is required of you and of me. Faithfulness. Be faithful in all that you do. God will honor that. A commitment means no excuses. Whether to our jobs, our program, our family, our friends, our God.

Lets bear the fruit of faithfulness for our brethren and strangers to see so that God may be glorified in all that we do.