Faithful Or Successful? By Adegboyega Adejobi

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and FAITHFUL servant: thou hast been FAITHFUL over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25: 21 & 23 (Emphasis mine))

“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found FAITHFUL.” – 1Corinthians 4: 1-2 (Emphasis mine)

While many in the world are wrongly pursuing success, God’s focus and emphasis is still on faithfulness.

God’s preference for faithfulness over mere earthly success is clear in Scripture in that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is called The Faithful Witness.

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the FAITHFUL WITNESS, and the First Begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” (Revelation 1: 5 (Emphasis mine))

To be successful is simply to be effective or achieve results but to be faithful is more than mere success. It is to play the game according to the rules. And, God has many rules for every human endeavor.

Faithfulness requires high fidelity!

Faithfulness is to be ethical and adhere strictly to given rules and standards. It is also to be diligent and thorough in performing assigned duties.

Whereas, success can be either good or bad, positive or negative, a virtue or vice (that is why Joshua 1: 8 talks about “Good Success”), faithfulness is always good, positive and a virtue. For example, bandits, kidnappers, rapists, armed robbers and fraudsters, etc. can be “successful” in their operations. That is Bad Success! And, there are many such bad people all around us these days.

To be faithful is more important to God than to be successful.

Unlike many successful people who are usually famous and who enjoy the limelight of life, faithful people are usually secret servers, diligent, obscure givers unknown to most of us. John the Baptist is a good example of a faithful servant of God in the Bible (Matthew 11: 11).

Actually, many so-called ”successful” people in the world are nothing but crafty, corrupt cheats who think they are wiser or smarter than others (Luke 16: 1-12).

Are you actually faithful or just successful?

Let us all learn to be faithful and not just be ambitious to be rich, famous or successful.

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3: 40)

Pastor Adegboyega Adejobi is the Presiding Pastor of Lifeline Bible Church, Lagos.