The character that remains faithful

Trust is built upon character. You trust someone because you know something about who they are. You know they tell the truth. You know they keep their word. You know they will not betray you. You know they care about others. You know they can be trusted with responsibility. In the same way, God is looking for people whose hearts are fully surrendered to Him.

Not people who have never made mistakes. Not people who have never fallen. Not people who have never struggled. But people who, when they fall, return to Christ. People who repent. People who allow correction. People who surrender. People who keep walking. People who allow God to change them. That is very different from sinless self-confidence. The Christian’s confidence is not, “I cannot fall.” It is, “I cannot safely live without Christ.”

Caleb: another spirit

Caleb is one of the clearest examples of lasting faithfulness in Scripture. He was one of the twelve men sent to explore the promised land. Ten came back with a fearful report, and the people turned against Moses. Caleb stood with Joshua and said that the land could be taken. Later, God said of him:

But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

Forty-five years later, when the land was being divided, Caleb came to Joshua. He was eighty-five years old, and he did not ask for an easy portion. He asked for the hill country that the ten spies had been afraid of:

Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said.

Notice the phrase repeated in that chapter: Caleb “wholly followed the LORD my God” (Joshua 14:8). His faithfulness was not a moment of courage. It was the direction of a whole life, and at eighty-five he was still saying, “Give me this mountain.” That is what a character that remains faithful looks like.

Falling and rising again

Faithfulness does not mean never falling. Proverbs puts it directly:

For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.

And Micah gives words that a person who has fallen can pray: “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The LORD will be a light to me” (Micah 7:8). The difference between a faithful person and an unfaithful one is not that one never falls. It is what each does next. We saw this in Peter, who fell and was restored. Faithfulness is the habit of returning to Christ.

Faithful in what has been entrusted

Jesus taught that God measures faithfulness by what we do with what we have been given. In the parable of the talents, a master entrusted his goods to three servants before leaving on a journey. Two of them used what they had been given, and he said to each of them:

Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.

Notice that the same words were spoken to the servant who had been given five talents and to the one who had been given two. The reward followed faithfulness, not the amount. “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Faithfulness is available to everyone, whatever they have been given.

Finishing well

Paul writes his last letter from prison, knowing that his death is near. His words are the words of a man who has been faithful to the end:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

He does not say that he had never failed. He says that he had kept the faith. And the letter to the Hebrews tells us where to look as we run:

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is the author and the finisher. The One who began the work in us will complete it, and in the meantime He invites us to keep looking to Him. Revelation records His promise to those who are faithful: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).