WHAT IT MEANS TO BE “FAITHFUL”

It is highly unlikely that the primitive Christians used the term “faithful” the way many of us do. A “faithful church” is one that is loyal to the issues, which vary from one party to the next. A “faithful preacher” is likewise one who is true to those features that distinguish one sect from the others. Faithful is hardly ever used to describe a church’s or a preacher’s devotion to Christ, their concern for the poor, their prayer and study habits, or their moral excellence.

Conversely, a church is unfaithful if it sings other than acappella, if it “harbors” charismatics, if it supports Herald of Truth, if it is premillennial, if it has a Sunday School, and on and on it goes. We all understand the question, Is there a faithful church in town? What is really meant is: Does our party have a church in that town? The person is not asking if there is a church that is loyal to Jesus as Lord. This is because the church’s stand on “the issues” is equated with loyalty to Christ. This means, of course, that no church is loyal or faithful to Christ except our crowd. Our crowd may differ on some things, maybe some important things, but we all stand together on “the issues,” and that is what makes us faithful. This is the essence of partyism and sectarianism.

A sister or brother is thus deemed “unfaithful,” not when she or he ceases being loyal to Christ but when she or he ceases being loyal to the party. A brother in Oklahoma was withdrawn from as unfaithful when he spent Sunday mornings teaching at a Christian Church. The Church of Christ said he was “forsaking the assembly.” A sister in East Texas met a similar fate when she experienced tongue-speaking. A West Texas couple’s faithfulness was questioned because they believe in healing.

Such people, and instances could be cited a hundredfold, are not looked upon as merely mistaken or wrong—as all of us surely are in at least some things—but their faithfulness is impeached. We have thus given birth to some strange language, such as “faithful to the church,” which has a connotation quite different from “faithful to Christ.”

Indeed, some of the most devoted believers I have ever known, people with a sacrificial love for Christ and his Body, have been driven off as “unfaithful” by some congregation.

There is nothing remotely akin to this kind of thinking in the Scriptures. Even when the early Christians differed with each other they did not impugn the faith of the other. Paul hung a stinging rebuke on Peter, but Paul would not have said that his fellow apostle had lost his faith. Paul and Barnabas went separate ways over a point of difference, but it wasn’t because one was faithful and the other wasn’t. The most serious difference in the primitive church, the attitude of the Jewish believers toward Gentile Christians, did not reach such a dimension that the Jews branded the Gentiles as unfaithful. After all that Paul says about the hangups of the Corinthian church, he would not likely have called it “an unfaithful church.” You don’t write “Ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you” to an unfaithful church!

The Scriptures indicate that a faithful Christian is one who is so devoted to Christ that she would die for her faith. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10) was said to believers who were about to suffer great persecution. It was not simply an appeal to be faithful all one’s lifetime, but to hold on to one’s trust in Christ even unto death by the sword. Such a crisis may come upon us American Christians, and I am confident that there are many of our own people who would be loyal to Christ to the very end of a painful death.

Rev. 2:13 indicates that our brother Antipas had such faith. The Lord refers to him as “my faithful martyr,” which must mean that he died at the hands of the Roman authorities because he would not acknowledge Caesar as Lord. It only required that one go into a temple, sprinkle a bit of incense on the altar, and say that Caesar is Lord. They didn’t care what he would do or whom he worshipped otherwise, so long as he gave lip service to the emperor. But Antipas’ devotion to Jesus was too great for compromise or opportunism, so he died with the confession that Jesus is Lord upon his lips. That is what it means to be faithful, for Jesus called him “my faithful witness.”

While the church at Pergamos, of which Antipas was a part, was wrong in doctrine in at least two areas that the Lord refers to, he nonetheless says of them: “Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith.” That means they were faithful even though he had some things against them. They were faithful because they had not denied Jesus, even in times of persecution. We can only conclude from this that brethren are unfaithful when they deny their faith in Christ.

A good way to understand this term is to see how it is used in reference to God. The Scriptures say more about God being faithful to us than it says about our being faithful to Him. Such as 2 Tim. 2:13 “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” This shows that being faithful means not denying. Another is Heb. 10:23 “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.” Just as God does not go back on His word, we are not to waver or deny our faith.

Some passages make it clear that being faithful is being loyal to Christ, such as Matt. 25:21 where “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” refers to the one who has been true to what the master expected of him. Still other passages tie faith to obedience in such a way that we can conclude that the faithful disciple is the obedient disciple, as in Lk. 12:42 where “the faithful and wise steward” is the one who does the Lord’s will even in the Lord’s absence. John 3:36 connects faith and obedience in such a way that some translations do well to use the terms synonymously: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will never have life, but God’s wrath will remain on him forever.” Thus unfaithful means to be disobedient.

This lesson will mean more to us if we are led to see that faith or being faithful is used in two different senses in Scripture, a difference that we often overlook to our own hurt. We can limit ourselves to the book of Romans, where in 1:16 faith or believing refers to the faith that makes one a Christian. So with 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is used this way many times throughout the book, such as in 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This is obviously the faith that saves and makes one a Christian.

But in Rom. 14 the word is used in a different sense. When the apostle urges “Accept among you the man who is weak in the faith, but do not argue with him about his personal opinions” (TEV), it is evident that “faith” here has more to do with a person’s opinions or scruples than it does saving faith. The brother is not necessarily weak in his faith in Christ, but he has scruples that may lead him to sin in that he would be going against his own conscience.

This meaning is made clear in the apostle’s next statement: “One man’s faith allows him to eat anything, but the man who is weak in the faith eats only vegetables.” This obviously does not mean that a vegetarian has a weak Christian faith, but that, having that scruple, he is more vulnerable to violating his conscience and thus sinning (because he believes it to be wrong) than the non-vegetarian, who is called “strong” since he does not have that problem of conscience.

Thus the apostle concludes by saying “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” This means that if one eats meat or drinks wine, or does anything, doubting it to be the right thing for him to do, sins in that he does not do it with a good conscience.

Faith is thus used here to mean one’s personal opinion, and it is clear that we will all have different opinions about different things. Some can do military service and some can’t. Some can drink a cocktail and some can’t. Some can join a secret lodge and some can’t. So it is with many matters of doctrine, in areas where the Scriptures are not clear or where they are silent, and so churches will be different from each other—not in respect to “the faith,” or the saving faith that makes us sisters and brothers, but in regard to “faith” that is personal opinion or scruple. Some churches will have scruples against the Sunday School or the organ or agencies. Others will not. But they can all be faithful churches in that they are true to Jesus Christ.

If we say that a sister or a congregation cannot be faithful to Christ without accepting our “faith” (opinion), we are violating the principles laid down in Romans. Three times in chapter 14 it says that we are not to judge our sister or brother. The principle laid down in verse 5 is one of the most liberating of all the Bible: Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. You are not to be persuaded according to my mind, what I think to be right or wrong on these uncertain issues, but according to your own mind. And as your brother I am to recognize that and extend to you your freedom to differ from me. Why? Verse 4 gives the answer: “Who are you to judge the servant of someone else? It is his own Master who will decide whether he succeeds or fails.”

The apostle wraps it all up in Rom. 15:7: “Accept one another, then, for the glory of God, as Christ has accepted you.” I am not to judge you. I am not to call you unfaithful when you disagree with me. I am to accept you! I am to accept you on the same basis that Christ accepted me—and I wasn’t all that right when he accepted me. This is the way we glorify God. The Father is not honored when we accept our brothers on our terms, for that way we seek honor only for ourselves, or for our side or our party.

All this means that we might be wrong about a lot of things, as most of us probably are, and still be faithful to Jesus. We are faithful when we trust him, love him, obey him, and, like dear Antipas, die for him if it comes to that.

May God grant that you, gentle reader, will always be faithful to Jesus even as he is faithful to you.—the Editor