23/05/2023
Faithfulness
Faithfulness is a matter of the heart and no one can rightly talk about faithfulness without mentioning and thus having loyalty in mind, the two are like two sides of a coin, as it were…
Psalm 12:1 (NIV),
“Help, LORD, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.”
Please note, here the psalmist (David) calls for the Lord’s (God’s) help on the ground that, as he puts it, “no one is faithful anymore”. Obviously, either even the faithful ones he used to know have become corrupted or they passed on (died ) without leaving behind a faithful legacy. Considering the word “anymore” in his statement, however, it is very likely that we’re having here the sad case of even the faithful becoming (consciously or unconsciously) corrupt!
It is interesting to note that the psalmist then goes on remarking that “those who are loyal have vanished from the human race. We see that he does not talk about faithfulness (the faithful) without hinting at loyalty (those who are loyal).
The rule is: Someone who is not faithful cannot be loyal just as someone who is not loyal cannot be faithful.
Obviously, for the psalmist, the fact that he couldn’t find even one loyal person among his fellow human beings was evidence enough that “no one is faithful anymore”. So the question is to know how he knew that those who are loyal have vanished indeed!
It feels like the psalmist is arguing a case. It is not enough to claim that “no one is faithful anymore” and evoke the absence of loyalty as evidence there of. The next statement (verse 2) is also telling: “Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts.” Here it is important to understand that he is still talking about the same thing, namely, no one is faithful anymore.
How could we find loyalty where everyone lies to their neighbour? Yes you heard it right: Everyone! Here we are compelled to expand our definition of a lie to include flattering with one’s lips whilst harbouring deception in the heart.
Simply put, anyone who harbours deception in his/her heart is a liar -Talking about the trap of pragmatism with its the-end-justifies-the-means approach to life…. No, the truth should always justify the means, shouldn’t? Such a person uses his/her lips to deceive, that is, to accomplish his/her selfish/personal or community agenda.
The rule is: Someone who harbours deception in his/her heart cannot be loyal just as someone who is loyal does not harbour deception in his/her heart….
The psalmist writes, Psalm 12:1 (NIV), “Help, LORD, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.” We’re reminded that it is not about the psalmist or them only; it is also about me, you, and us also, or a state that accounts for our world’s (life’s) being out of shape, as it were.
We’re challenged to pose and answer the following questions:
1. Am I faithful?
2. Am I loyal?
3. Is there no deception in my heart?
If you answer no to even one of the above questions, as we have, let’s us invite you to join us as we join the psalmist (David) and call on God for His help. Remember Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV), “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Finally we are reminded that the faithful does not harbour deception in his/her heart. Simply put, faithfulness is a matter of the heart. This is true in our relation to God and fellow human beings.
May God Help us all!
