Faithfulness always has two consequences when practiced. First, faithfulness does not guarantee that the same faithfulness will be returned to us. This is parallel to the consequence of forgiveness. Forgiving someone does not mean that the person will certainly change and not repeat the same mistake. Instead, forgiving means accepting that someone once hurt us and deciding to make peace with that wound, even without any guarantee that it will not reopen.
Second, when someone is faithful, they will face trials that test that faithfulness. Those trials can take the form of the first consequence already mentioned, namely, when the person to whom we are faithful is themselves unfaithful. When this happens, people often begin to reconsider their commitment to staying faithful. Generally, humans will stop being faithful when they do not receive similar faithfulness from the other party.
Those consequences of faithfulness apply in relationships between people. But what about faithfulness in the relationship between God and humans? On God’s side, He fully bears the same consequences. God’s faithfulness is not always met by human faithfulness. The Word of God through Paul says, “If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). This verse shows that a faithful God faces unfaithful humans. God’s faithfulness does not automatically make humans faithful. Therefore, it is very wrong for anyone to say that human salvation was absolutely determined from the beginning without the involvement of human response.
Besides the first consequence, God also experiences the second consequence, namely, trials of His faithfulness. However, in His perfect integrity, God chooses to remain faithful. Repeatedly in the Old Testament, it is stated that God repented (Genesis 6:7), God was grieved (Isaiah 63:10), and God was betrayed by human rebellion (Habakkuk 1:13). These expressions, although certainly not entirely parallel to human experience, are an honest depiction of God’s heart when His faithfulness is betrayed. God does not pretend to grieve over human betrayal.
How about humans? In their relationship with God, those two consequences of faithfulness can be experienced, but they may also go unexperienced. This depends on how a person views God. If someone harbors suspicion toward God, then when they sincerely serve and are faithful as a Christian, but do not receive God’s help in a major problem, they will feel that God did not repay their faithfulness. They will view God as having abandoned them. Therefore, it is not surprising that many Christians begin to doubt God when facing severe problems. At this point, their faithfulness is tested by themselves.
Conversely, this is not true for someone sincere toward God. A person who places their faith in sincerity will not feel betrayed when God seems silent amid their suffering. They instead see suffering as an opportunity to experience God. Therefore, the two consequences of faithfulness described above do not apply to them. For God is faithful. Even before we show faithfulness, God was already faithful. More than that, we are actually “surrounded” by His faithfulness. God cannot be unfaithful. If He remains faithful even in our unfaithfulness, all the more so when we are faithful to Him.
Thus, the greatest problem is not God’s faithfulness. The party most at risk in this relationship is actually God, because humans are the ones who can be unfaithful. From the human side, there is no risk in placing faithfulness in God, because He will surely be faithful. The most important question is: are we willing, sincerely and without suspicion, to place our faithfulness in Him? Are we willing to suffer worldly loss to be faithful to God? The only thing that can tempt and stop our faithfulness is ourselves. Therefore, the true enemy is not doubt about God’s faithfulness. The real enemy is ourselves, who often suspect God when our personal agendas are not fulfilled.