Christian teaching on reliability

1. Christian teaching onReliability –4th
March 2016
“All of us have become like one whoisunclean,andall ourrighteousactsare like filthyrags;we all
shrivel uplike aleaf,andlike the windoursinssweepusaway” (Isaiah64:6).
As it appears in the bible in Galatians 5, includes the concepts of faithfulness, reliability and
obedience. When one is faithful and obedient to God, it will generate the development of the
fruits of the Holy Spirit which we can learn from Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” When we study these good
works, we can note as to how contrastingly deferment they are as compared to the works of
the flesh that are also referred to as acts of sinful nature. Therefore we are talking about
Faithfulness in relation to both as an attitude.
and also as an action shown toward God and toward others.
The graces or fruit of the Spirit can be divided into three groups for ease of study and
consideration. Love, joy, peace reflect our relations to God. Patience, kindness, goodness can
be seen in our relations to others. Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control are indicative of the
regulation and conduct of our own individual Christian lives. In the above passage from
Galatians, the apostle Paul focus on the concept of trustworthiness, trustfulness, and reliability
that one could obtain through the Holy Spirit of God. Reliability and trustworthiness are of
primary importance when we are teaching or even discussing about God. As Christians we must
know that if we fail to communicate truthfully, faithfully and reliably, the whole effort becomes
a meaningless activity! We can learn from 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things you have heard me
say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to
teach others. This is particularly applicable to us when we teach great truths about God and His
teachings, so that it should trustworthy so that people who learn will then be able to faithfully
pass them on to others. We need to diligently do this because enhancing the awareness of God
is a mandate given to us as Christians.
Christian teaching should be essentially trustworthy which is further reflected in our concept of
a “trustee” in connection with stewardship. We are told in 1 Corinthians 4:1, “This, then, is how
you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has
revealed.” A Christian teacher is responsible to be a good steward of the truths God reveals
through the bible and not teach things that one may “feel” is true… Therefore we need to
minister these truths in a reliable manner in direct reference to the teachings in the bible in
order to generate awareness and faith in the listener. The Christian teacher must be faithful to
the recipients of the message, because the teaching should be absolutely reliable. In a larger
context, a trustee is one who has received a trust. We generally see this manifest through
building a public image of reliability, when teaching Gods word, raising funds, authorizing use of
funds, and mediating personnel disputes etc.
One has to develop reliability through Trustworthiness. In Luke 16: 1-14 we can learn from the
Parable of the Shrewd Manager. The concept of faithfulness is demonstrated in this passage.
We can learn of the incident when “Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose

2. manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is
this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager
any longer.’ The man was given a particular task but his reliability was compromised. To save
his job he had to resort to more wrongful actions: “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I
do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to
beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their
houses.’ He was shrewd enough to appropriate the means at his disposal in order to plan for his
future well-being.
But we learn that the ingenuity of the manager was recognized and rewarded... ? “The master
commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly”. He is commanded for His
shrewdness but not for his integrity. We can understand when we read further: “For the people
of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light”.
Jesus is showing us that there are people who are close with God and those who are not and
therefore we need to exercise a level of shrewdness: He is not agreeing to the man robbing the
others but wishes to teach us to use God given blessing so that we could bring many others to
God. “ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you
will be welcomed into eternal dwellings”.
If we were not required to account for our actions, responsibility would be meaningless. As
Christians we are required to give an account of our time, talents, homes, bodies, speech, and
possessions. We must be accountable for everything God has entrusted to us. For centuries,
Christian mystics and others have written and spoken disparagingly of ambition, thinking it to
be sinful. However, ambition when used to the glory of God is worthy of praise. To be a good
teacher for Christ we need to develop true leadership and it is achieved in selfless service to
others and is wrapped in humility. One can have selfish ambition to control others, to enjoy
power for power’s sake, and to be unscrupulous or manipulative in control of other people.
Jesus gave a different standard to His followers. The one who would be the greatest shall be the
servant of all. We can learn from Mark 9:35, “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said,
“Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”