Three Reasons Why Faithfulness Is Crucial for Christians

We love to talk about faith or love, but what about faithfulness? Jesus seemed to talk a lot about it. He even described the benediction by which we will enter heaven as, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Why such an emphasis on faithfulness? I’ve got some ideas. Here are three reasons why faithfulness is crucial for the Christian.

Faithfulness Accomplishes More

This may be pragmatic, but faithful people are just more successful. It is so much more important to do something well consistently, than to do it brilliantly every time you think of it. In fact, even President Calvin Coolidge said the same:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Granted, Coolidge referred to ‘persistence’ rather than faithfulness. These are slightly different concepts, but the principle remains the same. If anything, faithfulness is a bulked-up version of persistence.

I once imagined that great businesses existed when someone met a significant need for society that no one else had met. Now, I know the truth: great businesses exist when someone faithfully invests their years and energy in a business until it succeeds.

The business books say the same. The essential quality for companies is not a ‘niche product,’ but a CEO who is faithfully devoted to that company over the long haul. This, in fact, is one of the key traits that separates great companies from good ones.

Faithfulness Demonstrates the Heart

Anyone can fake it for a while, but no one can fake it forever. Sooner or later, you either stop faking, or what you faked becomes reality. ‘Faking’ takes energy, and no one can do that forever. I’ve heard the same thing with psychopathic serial killers (such a cheery subject). Around other people, they can appear to be ‘normal’ for a certain amount of time, somewhere around 5 hours. However, longer than that and they just can’t hold it in any more – they start to exhibit strange tendencies and appear creepy.

Faithfulness is essential because it shows who you really are. It demonstrates where your heart is. We all know that the man who faithfully loves his wife for 50, 60, or 70 years has a genuine, abiding love for her, because his faithfulness is far stronger proof of love than the words “I do.” Similarly, a lifetime of faithfully following Jesus is the strongest evidence in existence that Jesus really did a work of grace in a sinful heart.

Faithfulness is the Foundation for Everything Else

I’m not saying that faithfulness is the most important virtue – probably fruits like faith and love are more important – but there is a very real sense in which faithfulness is the foundation on which the other build.

Just think of it: what do you call a person who demonstrates patience…sporadically? An impatient person! How likely are you to feel love if that love is here one day and gone the next? What about the optimist – is that the person who, once in a while, feels that things could get better? Of course not!

In this sense, faithfulness is the foundation for the rest of the virtues. The goal isn’t just to demonstrate love, but to demonstrate consistent love. The goal isn’t just to have momentary glimpses of hope, but to be hopeful. Nor are we trying to exercise faith only at key moments, but in every situation.

What About You?

Are you prioritizing faithfulness? Do you follow through on your commitments, or do others have to remind you? Are you the sort of person that keeps your word? Remember: your family, your boss, and your God would far rather that you were faithful than knowledgeable.

I think there is some important application here for parents. Are you training your children to be faithful? Do you expect them to do their chores consistently, without you constantly reminding them? It takes work – and a lot of it – to train faithfulness, but it is an essential skill for the real world. In college and employment, ‘reminders’ are a nonexistent luxury. Prepare your children to live faithfully without them.