What does faithfulness look like?
Sometimes it may be hard to define what faithfulness is or what it looks like. But we know about the opposite of faithfulness.
Unfaithfulness.
We know what unfaithfulness looks like. We know how it feels. We’ve experienced the betrayal. We’ve cried the tears after being let down again. We’ve known the pain that comes from having our expectations gone unmet over and over again.
When someone has been unfaithful to us, and it doesn’t really even matter the context… it can be in a marriage relationship, it can be between friends, it can be in the workplace, it can show up in our systems of government, it shows up in a variety of scenarios in our lives… but whenever we were counting on someone for something and they didn’t come through for us like we thought they would… it leaves a mark.
More often than not, it leaves us with feelings of contempt for the one who let us down.
It makes it hard to trust. Hard to believe. Hard to let our guard down. When people we trusted fail us or abandon us or break their word, it hurts.
And right now, because so many people feel so let down for so many reasons, we’re living in a culture of contempt.
And it’s one reason why so many people have such a hard time believing in the faithfulness of God, because we have been let down so often by so many people.
What does a faithful God look like?
So what does faithfulness look like? And what does it mean when we say that God is faithful?
If you’re wondering what it looks like for God to be faithful, what it means to say that God is good all the time, and all the time God is good, then you are not alone. This has long been a question for people who call on the name of the LORD.
We started this series last week with these words from scripture…
“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.” Deuteronomy 7:9, NIV+NLT
At the time, Moses says to the people of Israel… this is who God is. God is faithful.
But what does faithfulness look like? What does a faithful God look like?
Stories of Faithfulness
We could look at the ways God provided for Israel throughout the ages. We could read the stories of the Exodus, of their time in the wilderness, of their victories in the Promised Land.
We could look again at the stories of great people of faith like David, or Elijah, or Isaiah, or Daniel, or Esther, or Deborah, or many, many more. We could see how God was faithful to his people over and over again by looking at their lives. By seeing their distress, their pain, their problems, and how at just the right time… God came through for them.
And those stories are important. It’s important to tell and retell stories of God’s faithfulness. To see how over and over again God has been faithful in very specific ways to His people.
But if you want to know what faithfulness really is, if you want to see a picture of faithfulness, if you want to know what faithfulness looks like, then I want to invite you to look at Jesus.
And perhaps no one ever gave us a more beautiful picture of the faithfulness of God than the Apostle Paul when he wrote this letter to the Philippians.
Jesus, the Picture of God’s Faithfulness
In Philippians 2, Paul describes Jesus in this way. You probably know these words. Maybe you’ve heard them before. But I want to invite you to hear them today through the lens of God’s faithfulness.
Though he [Jesus] was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
If you look up the word faithful in the dictionary, you’ll find a definition that sounds something like this…
Faithful: adjective; remaining loyal and steadfast.
The Hebrew word for Faithful is the word aman which literally means “to build up or support; to be firm or faithful, to trust or believe, to be permanent; morally to be true or certain;: of long continuance, stedfast, sure…”
So why did Jesus not think of equality with God as something He should cling to? Why did Jesus give up his divine privileges? Why did Jesus take on the humble position of a slave and become like one of us?
Because, Jesus wanted to show us what a faithful God looks like.
Jesus wanted to show all of us what it looks like when the God of the universe shows up. Jesus wanted to show us what it looks like when “the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands,” enters into the very story that he authored.
And this is quite incredible.
The Way of Jesus
When God stepped down from Heaven to Earth, when Jesus laid down his divine rights in the throne room of Heaven and was born in humility, something happened that changed everything forever. Jesus could have arrived with grand ceremony, with pomp and circumstance. Jesus could have made his way through Galilee with the wealthy and the VIPs at his side. Jesus could have ridden into Jerusalem on a white horse with an army at his command. And make no mistake, many wanted him to do that!
But that’s not the way of Jesus.
And that’s not the picture of what the faithfulness of God looks like.
Jesus took on the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
He came in humility, into humanity. God with us became like us so we could know that God really is near, that God really is here. You can count on God and you can know that He really is faithful because He left the throne room of Heaven to enter into our story as one of us.
A Sword or a Cross?
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
If you want to know what the faithfulness of God looks like, look at the cross.
What happens when God comes to earth?
Did he lead a revolt? Did he pick up a sword? Did he ever speak with contempt for those who disagreed with him?
No. No, he didn’t.
In fact, when one of his followers picked up a sword He told Peter to put it away. Jesus chose the way of the cross. He chose the way of sacrificial love.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
So what does faithfulness look like?
I’ve never been to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, but I have a friend who was invited to attend this past year. A man by the name of Arthur C. Brooks was invited to speak at the prayer breakfast. He spoke about what he called the crisis of contempt and polarization in our country and he offered the words of Jesus as the answer to this problem and our way forward as we work to be healers in our communities.
You may remember these words of Jesus when he said, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5.43-45
In his book, Love Your Enemies, Arthur Brooks suggests that we are living in a culture of contempt. He says that contempt is “anger mixed with disgust” and that it is the “conviction of the worthlessness of another.”
And herein lies the ultimate problem with unfaithfulness. It leads us into a life of contempt.
Contempt
When we are on the receiving end of broken promise after broken promise we begin to be filled with contempt for that person. Some people who believe that they have been on the receiving end of broken promises by God even have contempt for God. And contempt leads to polarization, isolation, and hate.
And the way forward, the way out, isn’t more contempt. It isn’t to answer contempt with contempt. It isn’t condemnation. It isn’t even tolerance of others or their opinions or the hope to be civil with those with whom we disagree. That’s not the way forward. That’s not the way out. According to Jesus, the way forward is the way of Love.
And by the way, this love isn’t a passive kind of love. It’s an active kind of love. IT’s standing up and speaking up for the marginalized, the overlooked, those who for whatever reason are unheard and unseen. It’s lovingly and intentionally stepping into the gap for others. Jesus chose the way of the cross. He chose sacrificial love. And if we are to follow him, we are called to take up our cross and lay down our lives for others.
The Cross
What does the faithfulness of God look like?
It looks like Jesus. It looks like the cross. It looks like the God who loved you and loved me so much that He willingly GAVE His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him would not be condemned but would have eternal life.
Hebrews 1.3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…”
What does the faithfulness of God look like?
The faithfulness of God is found at the cross.
The faithfulness of God is found in Jesus.
And the way of faithful love is the way of faithfulness.
Love
If you want to know what the faithfulness of God looks like, it looks like faithful love. Love for the other. Love for the enemy. Love that says from the cross, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Love that says My mercies are new every morning. Love that says in a culture of contempt that every person is a person of immeasurable worth. Love that says we can disagree and still love one another.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once famously said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Contempt has found its way into our country and even into God’s church. May we be a people who choose not to participate in the way of contempt, but choose the way of Jesus instead. The way of love.
Paul once wrote…
God is faithful, and you were called by him to partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:9 (CEB)
May we partner with Jesus to show the world the way of Jesus, the way of faithful love.
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