Faithfulness

I’m not a huge fan of group projects, and I trust I’m not the only one. In school, group projects generally involved one person doing all the work, while the others showed up when they wanted to with the harshest criticisms. I’ve yet to meet anyone (who was actually committed to the work involved in a group project) who enjoyed them. Despite these issues, the very things that make them nearly unbearable are the exact things that prepare us for the realities of adulthood. Truly, you may wind up doing all the work with no credit at times—bearing that with a good attitude is difficult. Likewise, when your group slacks off too much, you all wind up failing. It’s unfortunate but, sometimes, that’s simply how life works. As annoying as they are, it must be granted that group projects are an expedient means by which that knowledge can be attained.

Ideally, however, group projects work with several already-competent individuals working on something they can feasibly do with a reasonable amount of effort and teamwork. Moreover, your teacher would ideally have a fair standard for everyone to follow, and your grade would be reflective of how well each of you did rather than tanking your score due to the inaction of one lone slacker. As such, it is a group project in that the finished result was that of teamwork, but each individual’s work is the basis by which they are graded.

I want to carry this analogy as a lens through which we consider our faithfulness, acknowledging of course that all analogies break down with enough scrutiny. Consider 2 Timothy 2:22 in which Paul is speaking to Timothy, a younger preacher, giving him instruction on how to make his life the most advantageous for the spreading of the Gospel. Note that Paul is near the end of his life and so, in a major way, this letter shows the most tantamount things Paul would wish to pass on to him before he dies—either naturally or (more likely) through martyrdom. He has, in this section, been comparing the faithful person’s life to that of a vessel, prepared for honorable use (v. 21). Verse 22 thereafter reads, “Flee from youthful desires, but pursue— with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart— righteousness, faith, love, and peace.”

Appreciate with me that Paul desires Timothy’s faithfulness to be an independent and interdependent effort. By independent, I mean that Timothy was spiritually responsible for his own holiness and righteousness. Despite the level of love that Paul had for Timothy, he was not responsible for any spiritually destructive decisions Timothy could have rebelliously made. Paul does not seem to have been sarcastic in his praise of Timothy’s character and efforts (2 Tim. 3:10), yet the fact that he is writing Timothy a letter implies further instructions that could be freely obeyed or disobeyed. All of this is to say that the faithfulness required to pursue a life full of “righteousness, faith, love, and peace” could only be attained through independence rather than overdependence.

However, Paul would caution Timothy against his spirituality being fixed to a personal island—for he would die religiously malnourished in such conditions. His faith needed to also be interdependent. That is, the pursuit of such pious qualities as righteousness was to be a joint effort. Paul clarifies that the individuals with whom Timothy is to associate himself are those “who call upon the Lord from a pure heart,” not those who are impure or impious. In this clause is an implicit call to avoid unhealthy friendships, yes, but also to pursue healthy ones. The pride displayed by avoiding Christian fellowship is comparable to the folly of pursuing solely irreligious companions.

As Paul instructed Timothy, the depth of one’s faithfulness depends on it being both independent and interdependent in its basis and furtherance.