About staying faithful to others…
2 Timothy 1:16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus,
because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the
contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May
the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very
well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus. (NIV)
It is so easy for us to walk away from people. It is so easy to be selfish
and wrap our life up in our unfilled selfish needs. It is so easy to put our own
life first. However, when we walk away from others, when we turn selfish, and
when we put our own life first, we end up with no one in our life except
ourselves. A million influences pile upon us to turn us into a person who is
unfaithful to others. However, we all have the power and ability to push back
against the influences that destroy relationships. We all have the power and
ability to be steadfast and unmoving in our connections to others. There are two
worldly reasons to stay faithful to others. The first reason to stay faithful to
others is we need others. The second reason to stay faithful to others is that
others need us. Even when others do not express their need for us and we do not
express our need for them, these needs still exist and the needs are real. When
we walk away from others because we are selfish, we are rejecting the needs of
others in favor of our own needs. When we let our own needs dominate our life we
end up in an utter personal hell, a personal hell from which there is no easy
way out. Many Christians who grow up in a clean and wholesome Christian home
environment have no appreciation for how unfaithfulness can destroy the lives of
others. Tragically, persons who grow up in dysfunctional homes often believe all
homes are dysfunctional and assume unfaithfulness to others is a normal course
of events in relationships.
