This article is part of the series Scientific Virtues and the Fruit of the Spirit. Find other articles in the series here.
Let me paint you a picture. You go to church on a Sunday. You have some sung worship, enjoy a really encouraging preach on the topic of faithfulness by your local pastor, have some coffee or lunch or whatever it may be with all your Christian friends afterwards, and then prepare yourself for the week ahead. You might even have some time to reflect on everything you’ve learned during the day.
This particular attribute of God, that of His faithfulness, can be of great comfort to us, particularly at the end of a challenging week.
We remember that God is forever the same, completely unchanging throughout time, so unlike us in His nature that it can be easy for us to forget at times. We remember that God fulfilled everything He said in scripture through Jesus coming to earth in bodily form so that we could be rescued from our sins. We might even remember the promises that He made to us – through Abraham, through Moses, through Jesus Himself – and the inheritance awaiting us in heaven given by the free gift of grace because of our faith in Jesus. We remember that we have eternity set on our hearts.
Monday comes around. Time to get to work. Off you go, getting on with your study, meeting up with coursemates or colleagues to tackle the latest project you’ve been assigned. All thoughts of Sunday or church are forgotten. Suddenly, only the week ahead matters, and our eternal hope of salvation seems to become nothing more than a short-lived joy.
Sound familiar?
If you’re anything like me, all too often you will have experienced this duality of life that seems to come with being a Christian. You have the world of faith, with the people that you can relate to at church on a Sunday, sharing in the fruit of the Spirit together, living out and receiving God’s faithfulness, and being encouraged to live godly, Christian lives.
And then you have the world of work, where you slave away, often wearing yourself ragged, drawing alongside coursemates and colleagues in your shared familiarity of the trials and tribulations that scientific study brings with it. Often this can feel particularly accentuated by those two worlds, the scientific community and the church body, feeling like polar opposites! Faithfulness seems so far removed from the picture that it becomes almost irrelevant to us.
So, what do we do with that? How do we reconcile these things, bringing faithfulness back into the picture during the week? How can we be a godly, Spirit-filled witness to our fellow scientists, as well as a rigorous, methodical scientist serving our fellow believers?
Those who are sent
You may be familiar with the Great Commission given to us by Jesus out of his love for the world (Matt. 28:18-20; c.f. John 3:16)! I think we first need to recognise that, as overwhelming as this responsibility can seem, and as important as it is that we go where we are sent, we are by no means alone!
We have Jesus, who through His faithfulness to us promised to be with us at all times, which should give us a great deal of comfort as we seek to show and proclaim Jesus to those around us (Matt. 28:20).
We have the Holy Spirit, who was sent to the apostles and all the believers in the early church, as well as to all of us that have put our trust in Christ since, giving us power to speak and act in the name of Jesus (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4; c.f. 10:44-48).
And we have one another, placed in churches to edify and encourage each other through our various giftings, filling different roles where there is a lack and forming a body sustained by the head and able to invite newcomers in (1 Cor. 12:12-27; c.f. Col. 1:18). In that way we can be faithful to each other because of how Jesus faithfully leads us.
So, how does this help us? It means that as we go to church on a Sunday, we are being primed to walk out into the rest of the week, separated from one another yet unified through faith, to be ambassadors for Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit! And how exactly will the Holy Spirit help us do this? By transforming us into Christlike character through growth in the fruit of the Spirit as we progress in our walk with the Lord (Gal. 5:22-26).
Faithfulness in science
The natural next question to ask is probably this: What is the outworking of the fruit of the Spirit, particularly in a scientific community which can often seem to hold so little sentimentality for faith or religion?
Well, let me ask you something. What are your motives for pursuing scientific study or research? Why do you commit to seeing something through to completion? How do you go about your study? How much effort do you put in to make sure it’s the best work you’re capable of?
I’d encourage you to search your heart thoroughly for the answers to those questions (just as you might in researching the answer to a scientific query!). They will probably be very telling in your attitude and approach to work, and certainly evident to those around you.
The attribute of faithfulness, and God’s promise of eternal salvation to His people, should motivate us to produce work that will be of benefit to everyone around us.
It should enable others to view our work as trustworthy, knowing that we will have taken pains to take stock of everything, approach a problem from every angle, work through a problem methodically to arrive at a stalwart and robust solution.
And it should encourage others around us to ask the questions: Why do they put so much enthusiasm and rigour into their work? Why do they care? What is it that compels them to produce the best quality work they can?
So how can we be faithful as God has been so faithful to us?
By doing our background reading, we are faithful to those that have come before us. By arriving at a methodical and well-thought-through solution, we are faithful to those that might read our work after us. By approaching assignments with rigour and enthusiasm, we are faithful to the lecturers and tutors that put in the hours to increase our knowledge and further our learning. And by working hard to understand something, we are faithful to those around us that might benefit from our thoughtful study and research.
Most importantly of all, in all those things, we are being faithful to God in recognition of the gifts He gave us, and in response to His faithfulness to us. In displaying faithfulness, you can demonstrate to those around you what it looks like to be honouring and respectful of others in ways that I’m sure they would also wish to be treated. And this motivation can come from the knowledge that God first loved us and came to meet us where we were, even though we weren’t worthy of it.
What should I do next?
Let me encourage you to keep asking yourself the following questions: How am I being a witness to those around me in my scientific studies or research? How is my church preparing me for the week ahead so that I can be intentional about engaging with others in my workplace? How am I looking to encourage and be encouraged by other students or researchers working in the sciences?
Remember that often the way we act outside of church can have a real impact on those around us and can lead to some really fruitful conversations! As you practice faithfulness on your course and in your research, and as you remember how God has been faithful not only to you but to all His people because it is in His very nature, it can lead you not only to be the best scientist that you can be, but to be a loving and effective witness for Christ that shows people Jesus is absolutely worth living for. And who knows what might happen from there?
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