Paul was not boasting when, with his martyrdom imminent, he was able to say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (II Tim. 4:7) That is what every conscientious Christian hopes to be able to say when departure from this life is near. It is my heartfelt hope, and I am convinced it is yours also. The words of Jesus in His letter to the church at Smyrna ring through our minds: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev. 2:10)
When the world-renowned nineteenth-century evangelist D. L. Moody was facing old age, someone asked him for his permission to write a biography of him. He replied, “A man’s life should never be written while he is living. What is important is how a man ends, not how he begins.” (Vernon Grounds, “Our Daily Bread”) We should aim to be to like Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby in 1973—the greatest race ever run by a horse, some experts say. Secretariat ran each successive quarter mile faster than the one before, finishing in just under two minutes and setting a record that’s still unbroken.
Robertson McQuilkin (1927-2016) was for 45 years affiliated with Columbia (South Carolina) International University, serving as president and in various other capacities. The following words from his pen are evidence that this Christian educator was concerned about the “last lap” of his earthly pilgrimage: “It’s sundown, Lord, the shadows of my life stretch back into the dimness of the years long spent. I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last, thrusting me forever into life: Life with You, unsoiled and free. But I do fear. I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon—or do I mean too late? That I should end before I finish or finish, but not well. That I should stain your honor, shame your name, grieve your loving heart. Few, they tell me, finish well…Lord, let me get home before the dark.” Poignant words, worth pondering.
Faithful unto death is our goal—and His challenge to us. A Welsh postman had the British Empire Medal bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth; he had not missed a day’s service in 43 years. A Minneapolis high school teacher retired without having missed a single day on the job for 43 years. Paul Ehrlich, a German chemist, performed 605 unsuccessful experiments; the next one was a success, and it became known as “Compound 606”! Thomas Edison performed 18,000 experiments before perfecting the arc light bulb. After 50 failures on another project, Edison exclaimed: “I have found 50 ways it cannot be done!” Just a few examples of faithfulness.
Consider as well England’s William Wilberforce. (1759-1833) When Wilberforce was 25 years of age, he rededicated his life to the Lord, having just been elected to a seat in the British Parliament. Fearing that the demands of a political life might ruin his quest for spiritual victories, the statesman sought the advice of a pastor named John Newton, one-time slave trader and author of “Amazing Grace.” Newton’s advice: “Stay where you are. God needs Christians in politics.” Newton went on to suggest that Wilberforce might even be able to abolish the British slave trade. Wilberforce introduced a bill in Parliament in 1787 that would have done just that, but it was defeated; and it would be another 20 years (1807) before he was able to get a bill through Parliament that would end England’s slave trade. A Christian statesman then tried to push a bill through England’s legislative bodies that would free all slaves; that bill was not successful until August of 1833—a month after Wilberforce had died. What if he had given up his noble efforts the first time he had met with opposition? Faithful perseverance got the bill through.
John W. Stott (1921-2011), a British evangelical pastor, theologian, and author, said it this way: “It is comparatively easy to be faithful if we do not care about being contemporary, and easy also to be contemporary if we do not bother to be faithful. It is the search for a combination of truth and relevance which is exacting. Yet, nothing else can save us from an insensitive loyalty to formulae and shibboleths on the one hand, and from a treasonable disloyalty to the revelation of God on the other.”
Let us all dedicate ourselves anew to being faithful to His word, His work, and His worship as long as we have breath and being—for His glory, for our good, and for hearing His commendation and receiving His reward, the crown of Life.
“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” (I Cor. 4:2)