Galatians 5:22 – Faithfulness & trustworthiness

Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.

After “suitability” and “goodness” as typifications of “the fruit of the Spirit” follows “faithfulness” (Gr. pistis). The King James Version renders this word here as “faith” and that is correct. The root meaning of the Greek word ‘pistis’ is ‘faithfulness’ and depending on the context it means ’to trust’ (=to believe) or ’to be faithful to’ or ’to be trustworthy’.

He who is led by God’s Spirit trusts in God’s Word in everything. This trust is also the breeding ground of all the qualities mentioned here: joy, peace, patience, and so on. We trust God because He is trustworthy . And the measure in which we come to appreciate God’s trustworthiness is proportional to the measure in which we also become trustworthy ourselves.

A trustworthy person can be taken at his word. Trust is the foundation of any healthy society. This already applies on a micro level in a marriage. But trust is also indispensable in the family, the religious community, the workplace and everywhere where people live together. “A healthy relationship is built on unwavering trust”,  a saying goes. In an aeon where lies and deceit are standard, no quality is more valuable than trustworthiness !

Delen: