The opposite of faithfulness is abandonment . Unfaithfulness toward something is to forsake it entirely, while faithfulness is to keep something, to be loyal, and to be constant. The nature of our present lives is such that to be faithful to one thing always means abandoning something else. We cannot have it all. We make our choices, and pay our prices. As in the traditional marriage vows, both pledge to forsake all others and stay faithful to one another.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
Jesus refers to this pairing of faithfulness and abandonment when he states that a person cannot serve both God and worldly possessions, for we will cling to one or the other, and love one or the other (Matthew 6:24). He uses the strong language of hating one’s own family members (Luke 14:26), not because he actually wants his disciples to hate other people, contradicting his command to love one another (John 13:34), but because he is referring to how faithfulness requires abandonment.
Faithfulness and abandonment are inseparable, two sides of the same coin. When Jesus calls on his followers to lose their lives for his sake, he is speaking about this reality again. To take on the way of Jesus is to utterly abandon any competing agenda for our lives. To follow Jesus requires a choice: to what will I be faithful and what must I then abandon?
If we think about the numerous statements concerning God’s faithfulness, we may rightfully ask what does God abandon in order to be faithful? Or does this not apply to God?
I believe that God forsakes himself in order to be the ever-faithful God to us. God abandons any thoughts or concern for his own best interests, what will benefit himself, and completely pours his whole being and energy into this extraordinary love for his creation. Nothing is held back. Because of the totality of God’s divine self-abandonment, we can confidently proclaim that his faithfulness endures to all generations. In an exquisite paradox, the divine self-abandonment is also faithfulness to himself. God is true to his own selfless love, and in this sense is faithful to himself by abandoning all concern for himself.
The fullest demonstration of God forsaking himself is the cross. I do not mean to suggest the Father forsakes the Son in that event, or then we would have to conclude that Psalm 22:24 is untrue, the very psalm that begins with the words Jesus speaks from the cross. No, I mean that the cross shows how the Son, in union with the Father who loves him as the One and Only, demonstrates total selflessness for the sake of the world and our salvation. He for-sakes his own life for-the-sakes of our lives.
We are called to exactly the same faithfulness and abandonment in imitation of God as revealed to us in Jesus. God is faithful, period. Abandoning us is not in his nature, for his has abandoned himself. If abandoning occurs, it will be because we choose to be faithful to something else, but God waits still.
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