Find Us Faithful
by Tom Ellsworth
Thirteen years ago, in 2009, musician Steve Green composed the song, “Find Us Faithful.” The lyrics of the refrain are as follows:
O may all who come behind us
Find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion
Light their way.
May the footprints that we leave,
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live
Inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us
Find us faithful.
Faithfulness is not difficult to describe. In a marriage faithfulness means that you recognize your commitment to your spouse as a non-negotiable priority, that you don’t just survive but thrive in that singular, “so long as we both shall live” relationship. It means that your love and intimate affection is reserved for that one special person and that you are wholeheartedly committed physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Spiritual faithfulness to Jesus Christ shares many similarities to marital faithfulness. According to Romans 6, when we are baptized into Christ, we become united with Him – united with Him in life, united with Him in His death, burial and resurrection. When we acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Savior, we make a lifelong commitment which demands our love and loyalty until we draw our last breath.
Spiritual unfaithfulness, then, is when this world displaces Him as our priority, or when our sinful desires lead us to compromise our integrity or morality. There are many tragic pictures of unfaithfulness in Scripture but one of the saddest is seen in Demas. That Demas should be mentioned three times in the New Testament is significant. As Paul winds up his letter to the Colossian Christians, he writes that “Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings” (4:14, emphasis added). In Paul’s letter to Philemon, we read “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers” (verses 23-24, emphasis added). That is exclusive company, a Who’s Who list of Paul’s associates. However, in Paul’s final letter, 2 Timothy, this is what he relates to young Timothy: “Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica” (4:9-10). Demas was in Rome during Paul’s imprisonment, but at some point, deserted Paul and his prison ministry for Thessalonica. The verb implies that he had not simply left Paul but abandoned him during Paul’s greatest time of need. Paul was facing execution. Nothing indicates he was weary of ministry or struggling relationally with Paul. No, this was a spiritual matter. Demas left because he loved this world or as the New Living Translation puts it, because “he loves the things of this life” (2 Tim. 4:10). The Enemy got to him. Paul’s burden is not just that Demas has left him, but more likely that he had forsaken the Lord because he loved this world more. What a tragedy. Did Demas ever change? Did he ever reconcile with Paul? Did he come back to the Lord? We won’t have answers in this life.
God calls us to faithfulness – not just for a season but for a lifetime! Faithfulness is not difficult to understand, but it is challenging to put into practice. And if the Enemy got to Demas, he can get to us. How, then, should faithfulness be applied to congregational leadership?
Elders must follow God first and foremost. A good leader also knows how to follow! If following the Lord is not the priority of your life, change your priority.
Elders must love others more than self. That requires a spirit of selflessness. Church leadership is not fashioned after the business CEO model or an elected government official. Leadership in the Kingdom is from the bottom up, servant leadership. Elders, as shepherds, must put the needs of the flock before their own. That’s loving others more.
Elders must be patient. Faithfulness waits on God. The Lord’s timing is always perfect, and we dare not run ahead of him.
Elders must be flexible as time brings change. Change isn’t easy. Sometimes it takes one out of his comfort zone, but if change is where the Spirit is leading, then it is the best place to be. Leaders who are flexible as the Spirit molds and shapes the congregation are faithful elders.
Elders must be generous with their time and resources. After all, God has been faithful to us with the greatest of all gifts, his Son. How can we be less than sacrificial? Generosity and faithfulness are ministry partners.
God calls us to pass the baton of faith to each succeeding generation. If we are not faithful, we will have nothing to pass along, and future generations will arise spiritually empty-handed. Let us lead in such a way that the gospel will light the way for all who come behind us. Let us be found faithful so we will realize the victory of our faith. “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10, NIV).
