Do you apply the same standards of faithfulness to your Christian activities that you expect from other areas of your life?

If your car starts once every three tries, is it reliable?

If your paperboy skips delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he trustworthy?

If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a loyal employee?

If your refrigerator stops working for a day or two every now and then, do you say, “Oh, well, it works most of the time”?

If your water heater provides an icy-cold shower every now and then, is it dependable?

If you miss a couple of loan payments every year, does the bank say, “Ten out of twelve isn’t bad”?

If you fail to worship God one or two Sundays a month, would you expect to be called a faithful Christian?

We expect faithfulness and reliability from things and other people. Does not God expect the same from us? The problem is that in our religious activities we see ourselves as volunteers rather than as duty bound (1 Cor. 9). For a volunteer, almost anything seems acceptable. For a bondservant who is duty bound, faithfulness is expected (Matt. 25:21).