1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian FAITHFULNESS | Page 3

MONDAY
Matthew 25 v 14 – 23
Revelation 2 v 8 – 11
Faithfulness is a key theme that runs through the Bible. We see God placing a high value on
the faithfulness of His saints. We read of the faithfulness of the martyrs who willingly laid
down their lives for the cause of Christ and were faithful to the end. We read of the
faithfulness of the prophets who, despite resistance and being so misunderstood, were willing
to stay faithful to the end. We see the examples of some of the heroes of our faith being
confronted with death and yet, remaining steadfast and faithful to the Lord. I think of Stephen,
the first martyr in the book of Acts, how with great godliness, submitted his life to the stonethrowers who killed him for his faith. We read, in 2 Timothy, of the apostle Paul’s time in
prison, that historians tell us, led him to his execution and he declared himself to being
faithful to the end. We are inspired also by the disciples, of which ten out of twelve were
martyred for their faith – they too remained faithful to the end. However, the ultimate
example of faithfulness would have to be seen in the life of Jesus who, being who He was, still
remained faithful to the cruel death of the cross so as to fulfil the commission God had for His
life.
It almost looks, at first glance, that faithfulness is determined by our willingness to die for
Christ, but you know as well as I that it is probably very unlikely that any of us will. We live
in a land where there is freedom of religion and martyrs, in the sense to which we have
become accustomed, are very muchan exception rather than the rule. The question for our
churches today is not whether we are willing to die for our faith in Christ, but whether we
are willing to live for our faith in Christ. It is your life that God requires to be offered up to
Him, as if it were dead to itselfand only alive to Christ. We learn from Jesus how to take up
our cross and follow Him, realising that in order to follow Christ as we should, we have to die
to our own lives to take on His. This,Jesus says, is a mark of a true disciple. Paul speaks, in

Romans 12 v 1, about offering ourselves up as a living sacrifice to God. This simply means
that we die to self in order to live for Christ. This truth must surely be one of the most radical
teachings of the New Testament.