Faithful to the End?
For those of us who “took the plunge”, we remember vowing to our spouse in front of family and friends to remain faithful until death. While I hope you have and are continuing your quest to fulfill your promise, marriage fidelity is not the topic of discussion for today. No, we are going a bit deeper.
To my Christian family, have you made the same strong vow to Christ? Sure, you have “given your life to Him”. You have made Him “Savior and Lord”. What is your batting average when it comes to your fidelity to Jesus?
Not exactly batting champion, right? Is it possible, because of the abundant grace and forgiveness of God, we take Godly faithfulness more lightly than marriage faithfulness? If a husband/wife cheats, the chances of reconciliation are not always high. If we cheat on the Lord, reconciliation is 100%. Does that affect how hard you try?
Put it this way: are you looking for a faithful ending to life or a happy-comfortable one?
Peter, the apostle, indirectly gives us the distinction of “slaves” in view of the Almighty. We have been purchased at a price and now we are called to life accordingly. By the way, this purchase of our lives is one that saves us from bondage, not the other way around.
Here is his charge:
“For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps. He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth; when He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He was suffering, He did not threaten but entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:21-25 HCSB)
Christ enslaved Himself to the will of the Father. He remained fully faithful; pure fidelity. His “end” was not happy-comfortable. His “end” was faithful. We are to repeat His process in our own lives and devotion to the Father.
What is more important to you, personally? Again, are you looking for a faithful ending to life or a happy-comfortable one? Let’s up the stakes in our thoughts for a second so we can see how you really weigh the reality in which we live. If your daughter, your beautiful little girl, came to you and said “I want to move to the African bush to tell people about Jesus”… what is your initial thought?
What do you want for her? What do you weigh as most important? Is it to be happy-comfortable or to be faithful to Jesus until death? Jesus Christ suffered and remained faithful to the end, “leaving you an example so that you should follow in His steps.”
Nothing about the call of Christ is bathed in our own comfort and happiness. Instead, it is drenched with abundant joy of the Holy Spirit through our own salvation and faithfulness. His call for us is a call to die. There is no way to sugar coat this.
The beautiful part: in faith, if we die limping into the eternal Kingdom or jumping triumphantly, our Bridegroom whom we pledged our eternal fidelity, is the “Guardian of [our] souls”.
May our eternal faithfulness be accounted to us as righteousness. Be faithful always, even to the end.
