Faithfulness is one of the attributes of God. In everyday life, such as a relationship with God and fellow loyalty is very necessary. We need to remember that there are 9 fruits of holy spirit, namely:
- Love, the law of love in the Bible says to love God and our fellow humans.
- Joy, if we are filled with love we will always rejoice.
- Peace, God will fill the emptiness of our hearts with peace.
- Patience, God wants us to be patient.
- Mercy, God also sends us to be generous to anyone.
- Kindness, do good indiscriminately.
- Loyalty, be faithful because our God is faithful then, now, and forever.
- Meekness, God teaches us to have a meek heart.
- Self-control, we must be able to control ourselves so as not to fall into sin.
So it can be said that faithfulness is one of the 9 spiritual fruits that God teaches examples of faithfulness in the Bible. Proverbs says, many people call themselves kind but, it is rare to find a person who is loyal. Loyalty has many definitions including:
- Hold fast to promises because God's promises for believers are yes and amen
- Be obedient and obedient
- No matter how heavy the assignment is, it remains private, you must carry it out without complaint
Biblical faithfulness in the Old Testament are:
- Sturdy
- Immovable
- Do not change
- Truth
- Sincere
The Bible itself says that God's love is eternal, unchanging, and his lovingkindness is everlasting. Whereas in the new agreement, loyalty can be interpreted as:
- Can be trusted
- Obey
- People believe
- Trust
- Certainly
- Right
We can see God's promises for the faithful in Deuteronomy 28: 1 where the verse says God will lift us above all the nations on earth if we listen carefully to His voice and do everything faithfully. his commandments. Remaining in Deuteronomy 28: 13-14, God will raise us to be heads and not tails and make us continue to rise not fall if we obey His commands faithfully.
Whatever He will give as long as we do it faithfully.
Examples of the character of Christ, one of which is faithful, can be seen from:
Do not deviate to the right and to the left
Stay straight with what God wants, not looking for other ways to solve problems. Deuteronomy 5: 32-33, reminds us to do all of this faithfully, do not let the examples of faithfulness in the Bible turn to the right and to the left in order to continue to age in the occupied land.
Hold on to the finish line
Obedience to the end means not only partial obedience and delaying obedience. God wants his children to be obedient to the end by not only partially or postponing it. Revelation 2:10, reminds us to be faithful until death so that we can get the crown of life.
Examples of unfaithful biblical characters:
- King Saul, King Saul was well known for ruling his kingdom but he also fell into sin. He sinned because he did not destroy all the livestock and kept the good things under the pretext of offering them to God
- Simon Peter, Simon Peter was one of Jesus' disciples who denied Jesus by not admitting that he knew and was a disciple of Jesus
- Judas Iscariot, Judas Iscariot was also a disciple of Jesus but he sold Jesus for 30 silver
Examples of biblical characters whose faithfulness we can exemplify:
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the story of the three of them begins with those who do not want to worship the idols ordered by Pharaoh and choose to remain loyal to God and finally they are put into the furnace but, because of their loyalty God defends them
- Daniel, Similar to the stories of Sadarakh, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel remained loyal to God even though he was put into the cave of the lion of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul was imprisoned, tortured, and heard almost to death to preach examples of faithfulness in the Bible, the truth to the finish line
What are the consequences if we act unfaithfully? God will hide His face and see how we end up. Like books, our lives should boast of God so that our names will be on the record of His life.