Bible Dictionaries
Faithfulness

　　1. Faithfulness of God.-The apostolic writers agree with the general biblical teaching in ascribing faithfulness to God as ‘keeping covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations’ (Deuteronomy 7:9). Two general examples may be given. (l) Among the faithful sayings in the NT letters, there is found one in 2 Timothy 2:11-13, where the writer speaks of the sufferings that he gladly endures, for ‘if we died with him, we shall also live with him … if we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself.’ God’s faith-fulness rested upon His own nature and not upon any human contingencies.

　　(2) The writer or Hebrews elaborated this truth when he dealt with the blessings that were to come in and through Abraham. In order that he and all believers might have greater assurance, God not only made gracious promises, but also interposed with an oath so that He might show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel. God’s faithfulness was assured both by promise and by oath (Hebrews 6:13-20).

　　This Divine faithfulness was made by the apostles the ground of forgiveness and cleansing to those who confessed their sins (1 John 1:9), of deliverance in temptation from the power of evil (1 Corinthians 6:13, 2 Thessalonians 3:3), and of confidence in the final salvation of those who were called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 5:24).

　　2. Faithfulness of Christ.-It is noteworthy that in the Apocalypse, where Christians are being encouraged to endure, the faithfulness of Christ is made prominent. Thus He is called the faithful witness (Revelation 1:5; Revelation 3:14), and victory is ascribed to Him who is ‘faithful and true’ (Revelation 19:11). But it is in Hebrews again that we find this faithfulness enlarged upon. In the earlier sections of that Epistle, where the writer is comparing the work of Christ with that wrought by angels and prophets, he shows that both Moses and Christ were examples of faithfulness, but Christ excelled, insomuch as a son’s faithfulness over God’s house excels in quality that of a servant in the house. ‘He hath been counted of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honour than the house’ (Hebrews 3:1-6).

　　3. Faithfulness of Christians.-In the background of every Christian life the apostles placed the example of Christ and the attributes of God, and thus the faithfulness they sought to practise and instil was linked with the faithfulness of God. For this reason St. Paul repelled with heat the charge of fickleness that had been brought against him by critics in Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:19-22). He acknowledged that there had been an alteration in certain details of his plans, but he asserted that this was due not to any passing inconsistency in his mind, but to greater faithfulness to his unchangeable desire to help them. He had not changed his plans capriciously, saying ‘Yes’ to-day and ‘No’ tomorrow, but he had adhered to principles as un-changeable as the gospel he preached. As God was faithful to His promise, so the Apostle did not vacillate; as Christ was unchangeable, so was St. Paul. The steadfastness of St. Paul and of all Christians found its source in the Divine stablishing in Christ. This is only one example of the apostolic belief that constant faithfulness in Christian life came from faith in Christ, ‘the faithful and true,’ while apostatizing from the living God came from an evil heart of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12).

　　The faithfulness urged by the apostles covered the whole of life. It must be shown by Christians in their ordinary callings. When many were inclined, in view of the near approach of the Day of the Lord, to abandon their ordinary occupations, St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that all must work with quietness and eat their own bread, and that none must leave their common work and live in idleness (2 Thessalonians 3). In like manner St. Paul wrote more than once that those who were called to be Christians must abide faithfully in their callings and perform their duties. Masters must put a new spirit into their oversight; slaves must become only the more diligent and faithful in their service; husbands and wives must remain faithful to their marriage vows, even when the new bond to Christ has been fashioned.

　　Within the Christian Church those called to any duty were required to exercise their gifts faith-fully. He who was called to be a minister of God was reminded that a steward must be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2). Each one must be faithful to the graces given by the Spirit, whether of prophecy, teaching, giving, or ruling (Romans 12:6). St. Paul claimed that he exhibited his faithfulness in teaching when he was dealing with the ease of fathers and their unmarried daughters (1 Corinthians 7:25). When he was expressing his judgment on this matter he said that he had no ‘command’ (πιστήν τῴ κυρίῳ, Acts 16:15); but he should be also, like Timothy, ‘faithful in Christ’ (