The Sunday News
Itai Chipunza
Mathew 28 verse 19 to 20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The Bible contains a lot of situations of God displaying faithfulness and loyalty to his word, loyalty to his promise and even to his servants. But the most important of all displays of loyalty to me is the words he says to us while gives us the master task. He says as we preach the gospel, he is with us always. Not some times, but always. By this we establish that our God is a faithful God. He is one who performs what he says he will. It then becomes a must for us to be loyal people as well.
The same bible that tells us about the loyalty of God also tells us that we are made in his image. This therefore means if you are disloyal and unfaithful to your word and promises, you are living outside the specifications of your creation.
A common example I could use is a car. When driving a car, for it to move forward you have to engage the gears in their sequence, moving to a higher one as the speed increases.
The opposite is applicable when trying to stop it, you combine the use of brakes and moving to lower gears as the speed decreases. This is because it is the way the car is made by the manufacturer.
Any other way of driving it would be outside the intensions of the manufacturer while he designed and manufactured it. It may move when you drive it any other way, but that does not make it right. You may appear to be progressing and doing well in an unfaithful life but it does not make it right.
Like a wrongly driven car will soon encounter problems due to the misuse, soon everyone will encounter problems if they continue in their disloyal path.
In this particular instance we see Jesus instructing his disciples. Actually, we see Jesus instructing us his disciples. All of us love the part where God says I am with you always. This means he is there without fail. It means whenever you travel you do not have to pray to say God come with me, your prayer instead should be thank you God for you are always with me and that you have never left me. It means God will not let his child be by himself.
He is a faithful God.
It takes one who is loyal to always be with you always. Faithfulness is not something that is achieved through laying of hands and prophecy, instead it is something that requires practice.
Constantly trying to be faithful to what you are saying and believe in. Not shifting characters and constantly being a true person. Every individual is loyal to something, we are faithful to one thing or the other. No one is loyal to nothing.
There are people that are loyal to sports teams, they are there during all sorts of weather conditions, be it rainy, sunny, cold or windy. They will be there. They support the club in everything it requires to their best abilities.
People loyal to sports teams support and display loyalty by attending soccer matches and have in-depth knowledge of what goes on in the club. The cost of running, cost of players, gate takings and other businesses the club may be involved in.
Others are faithful to their church, if the pastor says we are going to hold a conference and we need to contribute money to it, they are forth coming. They do everything in their power to ensure that they meet the budget allocated to them and even more.
Others are faithful to themselves, they ensure that their bodies are clothed in the best clothes and best perfumes money can buy placing everything second after their bodies. Everyone is faithful to something.
It is very important to be careful what you are faithful to. This is because what you are faithful to, you will plant your life in to, you will invest everything you have to make sure you are part of it.
The thing you are faithful to begins to take roots and be established in your life. In the same manner what you give yourself to will give itself back to you. The word says you reap exactly what you saw.
This can be paraphrased in this way, what one gives themselves to will give itself back to them, a good measure, pressed down and running over. One that gives themselves to a football club will reap in-depth knowledge of the club, detailed ability to predict outcomes of every game accurately.
They will reap a good seat in the arena to watch soccer. At best they may also reap a job as a caretaker at the club premises and a few bruises resulting in supporter wars outside the actual kicking of the ball.
Then the most unlikely possibility maybe to buy the football club. One that is faithful to their body will reap exactly what the body has to offer, photographs from body admires, a marketing job and everything that comes from being invested in your body.
Some even a good modelling job. Remember, it has to be a good measure, shaken and pressed down and running over. The word says the flesh profits nothing, this entirely depends on who you are. There are people that like to profit nothing. So the way God created everything, he gives you a chance to choose what you want to profit from, and if you choose flesh, he gives you a chance to profit nothing. The one that is faithful to the work of the church will also reap what he has invested his life to. Health, prosperity, divine covering, personal experiences with God and everything that the church has to offer. Let us not forget the condition, pressed down, and running over. This condition means you will get more than just what you put in. you will get a good measure of it.
This same loyalty should be displayed in everything we do as our Father does. Faithfulness is something that you train yourself to do. We should train ourselves to keep our word. Do what we say we will do, keep our promises and avoid telling lies. With continuous everyday practice and with time we will become completely dependable people. We become people of our word. It is imperative to be such a person for one simple reason, Christ is.
The world instead views loyalty as stupidity. The world encourages selective truthfulness, it encourages dodgy characters who are not dependable on.
The world applauds deception and cheating. Having a thousand girlfriends, this is exactly what the world encourages.
I actually head one boxing super star say when it comes to women, a man should have as many as he can take care of. His example was perfect if you look at it from the devils perspective, he said there are people with 10 cars, although you cannot drive 10 cars at the same time. So his point was, the same should apply in women.
He said, if you can afford to financially take care of ten women, then you should have them. The problems with this devilish view of women are endless, I will just go through a few. There is no consideration of the time and emotional investment required.
Yes, you may have ten wives, but each need time with you, they need you to genuinely care for them beyond just physical attraction. Also the children born to this kind of set up are never like those born the way Christ designed it. It is also the cause of the spread of HIV and all other sexually transmitted illnesses. I do not want to stretch.
- To Be continued next week
