The Fruitful Life: Faithfulness

Faithfulness is a relational term. Where would we be without faithful doctors, teachers, letter carriers, or trash collectors? Or where would we be without faithful mothers, father, grandmas, and grandpas? Or where would we be without faithful soldiers? After all, The United States Marine Corps even recognizes faithfulness with their motto: semper fidelis, “always faithful.”

Faithfulness is relational, and perhaps the human relationship where faithfulness is most important is in a marriage. Consider what a bride and groom promise to each other in their vows: 

“I take you . . . to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death us do part, according to God’s holy will; and I pledge to you my faithfulness.”

“I pledge to you my faithfulness.” The person promises to remain faithful to their spouse, forsaking all others and forming a lasting, loving relationship exclusively with the one special person they marry. Throughout the course of their life together, each couple finds out whether they can keep that vow or not. Will temptation lure one of them to be unfaithful? Will financial pressures break them up? Can they endure a lingering illness, the death of a child, the interference of an in-law, the stress of relocation? Can they count on that person they’re marrying to be faithful? Because, after all, a marriage can’t thrive without faithfulness.

As we consider faithfulness, and unfaithfulness, a perhaps not-so-familiar book in the Old Testament comes to mind—the Book of Hosea.

In the Book of Hosea, we read that the Lord makes an unusual request of His prophet. He instructs Hosea to marry a woman who is known for her unfaithfulness. This woman, Gomer (strange name, right?), is even described as a prostitute. Throughout the course of this book, we see that in spite of Hosea’s constant love for his wife, her unfaithfulness worsens. She even runs away from her husband and has to be bought back by him. But through it all, Hosea remains faithful—to the Lord and to his wife.

So, why? Why did God command Hosea to marry a woman like Gomer? Throughout this book, Hosea’s faithfulness to his unfaithful wife is exceptional. And in Hosea’s exceptional love for his wife, we get a small glimpse of God’s even more exceptional love for us. The Lord has chosen us as His own—as His bride. And yet, so often we are unfaithful to Him. Like unfaithful Gomer, we run away from Him to put other things before Him: money, material things, ourselves. We are sometimes unfaithful to our God, but He always remains faithful to us.

That picture of Jesus as our husband and we as His bride might sound a little odd. Yet, that’s exactly the picture the Bible uses to describe our Savior’s relationship with His bride—the Church—the people of God: you and me. Perhaps we see this most clearly in Ephesians 5, where Paul compares the faithfulness a husband has for his wife with Jesus’ faithfulness to us.

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26–27).

Husbands are called to faithfully love their wives as Christ loved the Church. We are called to be willing to even lay down our very lives for our spouse. After all, that’s what Jesus did for us. He laid down His life for us. Jesus laying down His life for you at the cross is really the ultimate act of faithfulness. There, Jesus faithfully fulfills His Father’s will. Jesus faithfully gives Himself up for you that you might be holy and without blemish.

And because of our faithful Savior, we know that the striking words of confession and forgiveness in 1 John 1:8–9 are true:

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Whatever our relationships—whether doctors, teachers, mothers, fathers, husbands, or wives—as people made beautiful in Jesus, we bear the fruit of faithfulness.