In our ongoing series on the Fruit of the Spirit in missional enterprise, we look today at Faithfulness.1

Jesus makes clear in the Parable of the Talents that faithful servants receive affirmation, greater responsibility, and entry into “the joy of [the] master.” In that parable, an identical blessing is pronounced on each of the two stewards who made more with the talents the master entrusted to them:

‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Matthew 25:21 (ESV)

Jesus repeatedly uses a word to describe what a steward should be:

Faithful.

Pastor J.D. Greear describes the importance of focusing on faithfulness and the contrast between faithfulness and willfulness in one of the sessions in the Faith-Driven Entrepreneur Video Series: “God has not called you first to success. He’s called you first to faithfulness.” Greear uses the words of Solomon in Psalm 127:1-2 to highlight what is our responsibility and what is not:

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Drawing from the Psalm, Greear concludes:

“It is ultimately not your responsibility to guarantee the safety of the city. It’s not even your responsibility to make the crops flourish. It is your responsibility to be faithful and to faithfully fulfill the roles he’s given you.”

God has entrusted us with a high calling as leaders of missional enterprises. He has called us to faithfulness. Even more, he has ultimately called us by His own faithfulness, and the power to live faithfully comes from him. As Mark D. Roberts writes in the Theology of Work Project:

But your ability to act faithfully depends on something that simply must be mentioned . . . his faithfulness to you. We build our lives on the trustworthiness of God as our Savior and Lord. We count each day on his grace, mercy, and wisdom. If God were not faithful to us, we’d have no hope, and we’d certainly not be able to live faithfully for him.

Verse(s) of the Week

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (ESV)

Let’s meditate on this passage this week, and rejoice both in the high calling to faithfulness God has given us, and the knowledge that he is ultimately responsible for growth.