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Commentary on "The Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness"

PHIL HARRIS

 

Day 2: Sunday, February 14, 2010

 

Overview

This passage sets the theme of today’s lesson:

Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD, with your faithfulness all around you? (Psa. 89:5-8 ESV)

 

Observations

The lesson speaks of God being our model of what we must study for examples of faithfulness. This is like coming up to a person and telling them they look just as real as their photo. How odd to say such a thing. Certainly we study God’s faithfulness but not as a model. God is the source, the real thing. God is faith and he displays perfect faithfulness. God is the reality, not the shadow or “model”.

Next, the lesson speaks of “three trillion years” before creation. This is another piece of gibberish. Time, and the measure of time must have a starting point to give it ‘quantity’. God’s existence is infinitely beyond such expressions because, well, he is infinite and does not have a starting point.

In the Teacher’s version of the lesson, the question is asked: “In what ways can our unfaithfulness limit God’s power?”

What? You have to be kidding! For an example of how our unfaithfulness cannot limit God, let’s look at what Joseph said to his brothers.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, 'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (Gen. 50:15-21 ESV)

There is no way our unfaithfulness will ever limit the timing, intent or power of God. Take a moment to consider the scheming of Satan, the most evil being in the universe with power far beyond our own. He did everything he could to bring about the death of Jesus only to learn to his moral shock that it was God’s plan all along. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, three days later exactly as he said would, testifies to God’s all knowing and powerful faithfulness.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (I Cor. 15:17-20 ESV)

 

Summary

  1. When we look to God concerning faithfulness we are not to do it to find an example or ‘model’ that we are to emulate. On the contrary, when we look upon God’s faithfulness we are seeing the faith he has imputed within us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is not without reason that the Bible refers to this as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Faithfulness is the display of God’s faith within the life of those he has adopted into his Body, the Kingdom of God.
  2. There is nothing we can ever do that will hinder God’s faithfulness.

 

 

GO TO DAY 3

 

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