The Fruit Of The Spirit- Faithfulness

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

The Greek word pistis is more often translated in the New Testament as faith, but it equally carries the idea of faithfulness. In this list of characteristics that define the way that we behave towards other people, faithfulness seems a better fit.

One dictionary defines the word faithful as “Adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, cause, or idea; loyal.”

Faithfulness means firstly that we are faithful to God. We don’t give up on our relationship with God when He fails to deliver for us the goods we think we should get, or when life gets difficult. On the contrary, for the faithful person adversity just causes them to dig deeper and hold on more tightly.

Faithfulness means that we do not go hopping from congregation to congregation, moving onward when preachers teach challenging messages or when we have disagreements. The most mature christians are those who work out their disagreements and difficulties with others.

Faithfulness in marriage means that we hang in there “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” No trophy wives or younger models, no playing the field or looking for a better offer.

Faithfulness can be seen as stickability, the determination to so value another person that nothing can separate us from them.

The faithfulness that God plants in us is the faithfulness that He has towards us, the idea that nothing will turn Him away from us.