Oops I lied again.

Faithfulness

Q. Who in here likes sports? What is your favorite sport? Would you go to a _______ to learn how to play that better?

Exactly, I think it would be foolish to go to the wrong person or place to learn a sport. Well I got good news for you all today, today we are going to dig into faithfulness, one of the fruits of the Spirit that I struggled with the most as a kid growing up living with my parents.

Let’s pray

English Standard Version Chapter 5

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Before we dig into this, we need to know what we are talking about. Let’s get a good working definition of what “faithfulness” actually means.

Dictionary of Paul and His Letters 4.7. Faithfulness (Pistis)

4.7. Faithfulness (Pistis). Pistis may mean either “faith” or “faithfulness.” The context, which lists eight other ethical qualities, indicates that one should expect pistis to denote an ethical quality also. Since God is faithful (Rom 3:3), his people also are to be faithful. The word points to the idea of reliability or trustworthiness.

There are 3 possible meanings that the Apostle Paul could be using here, faithfulness could mean just the overall Christian message or more commonly, the acceptance of the gospel message and the commitment of yourself to Jesus as Savior and Lord. However, here in the list of the fruits that Paul gives us the meaning is different

Galatians Galatians 5:22–23

As an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, pistis has yet a further meaning: faithfulness, fidelity, that is, the quality of being true, trustworthy, and reliable in all one’s dealings with others.

points to the idea of reliability or trustworthiness

Q. Who in here would say that they are trustworthy or reliable?

Q. What are we supposed to have faithfulness for or in?

I have 2 boys, Ben who is 13 and Matthew who is 7. Should I have faith that my sons will always tell me the truth? That would be nice, but at this stage of their lives I know better. Should I have faith that I will always cook steak perfectly, once again, thats not going to happen.

Should I have faith that nothing bad will ever happen to me?