God revealed something to me as I read Psalm 73 the other morning. It’s not merely faith that saves us; it’s faithfulness.

For behold, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. (Psalm 73:27)

As I read this verse, a particular word seemed to jump off of the page—unfaithful. Faithfulness is a big deal to God. We know this because unfaithfulness is the only legal ground God gives us to walk away from a marriage. We know how important marriage is to God, so by that we are able to measure just how important faithfulness is to God.

Faith (noun) 1. complete trust or confidence in something. 2 strong belief in God or in the doctrines of religion.

Faithful (adjective) remaining loyal and steadfast.

I’d like the point out that Psalm 73:27 doesn’t say the faithless will be destroyed, but the unfaithful. This verse makes it clear we are held to a higher standard than merely having faith. Everyone who is faithful has faith, but not everyone who has faith is faithful. There’s a quote I’ve heard many a time—“Even the demons believe in God and acknowledge His power.” See, it’s not enough for us to simply believe in God, but we must be faithful to God. It’s not enough to have faith; we must be so full of faith that the word faith(ful) accurately describes our character. To have faith is to believe; to be faith is to be faithful—steadfast and loyal. We must go beyond having faith to becoming faith! In other words, our actions need to line up with what we claim to believe.

In marriage, it doesn’t matter how much faith you have in your spouse and their ability to meet your needs, if you aren’t faithful, the relationship will suffer, right? It’s the same thing in our relationship with God. It doesn’t matter how much faith you have in God, His existence, and His abilities; if you aren’t faithful to Him, is that really a genuine relationship?

So how do we stay faithful to God? How do we move past having faith to becoming faith? These are the questions Psalm 73:27 left me with. This isn’t the most notable verse in the Bible, but God used it to speak to me and through me to you. I hope it made you stop and think for a moment the way it made me. Of all there is in this world we could become, faith surely must be one of the greatest.