The Faithful Witness

The Scripture writers penned the Scriptures by the anointing of God (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:19-21). As the Holy Spirit led them to write, they wrote out of their divinely inspired revelation. Their revelation was closely tied to the Lord's dealing in their personal lives, as the four gospels of Jesus demonstrate. All four of the gospel writers had (1) a different personal connection with Jesus and (2) their own character flaws that the Lord was working out of them.


Mark, an associate of Peter and Paul who deserted Paul on his second missionary journey, wrote a gospel that seems to be an abbreviated version of Matthew's.

Matthew was an original disciple of Jesus; as a tax collector, he was very meticulous with details.

Luke, Paul's traveling (physician) companion, was the detailed historical writer who chronicled the life of Jesus and the life of His apostles (Acts).

John, one of the original twelve disciples, had a close personal relationship with Jesus, and this comes through in his writings. The Lord not only led him to write his version of the gospel, but also included in the Bible a few of his personal letters and a very special message given to him, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1:5, John mentions Jesus as the faithful witness. All of the New Testament writers were witnesses of Jesus as they wrote out of their experiential revelation.

There are instances in the four gospels where the content from one book compared to another does not seem to line up. These are not discrepancies that validate scriptural error but rather are the writers' revelational experiences coming through. They wrote, by divine inspiration, what they experienced (Matthew, John) and understood (Mark, Luke). They wrote what Holy Spirit brought back to their remembrance (John 14:26). They wrote what was important to them (what the Spirit of truth had made important to them).

As an example, Luke was the only gospel writer to pen the account of Pilate sending Jesus to Herod for interrogation (Luke 23:6-12). Pilate was annoyed that he had to deal with the Jesus incident and, as a compromiser, wanted to dole this potentially explosive situation off onto someone else. According to Luke's account, Herod was excited to see Jesus, for he had heard many things about Him. But, as John was the only gospel writer to mention, Jesus was the faithful witness to truth. He declared:
For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth...(John 18:37)

Jesus said these words to Pilate and now was faithfully witnessing to the truth before Herod:
Then he (Herod) questioned Him (Jesus) with many words, but He answered him nothing...Then Herod, with his men of war, treated him with contempt and mocked Him...and sent Him back to Pilate (Luke 23:9-11)

As Jesus bore witness to the truth by remaining silent, Herod's freshly pride was wounded, and his gladness quickly turned into fury and indignation. Wounded pride--which occurs when one does not receive the truth--can forge unholy alliances, as revealed in verse 12:
That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.

Jesus also told Pilate, "Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice" (John 18:37b)

According to Strong's Concordance, the word "witness" comes from the Greek word martus. Martus (martyr) is one who testifies to the truth he has experienced; one who has knowledge of a fact and can give information concerning it". Strong's goes on to say that martus (martyr) in itself does not imply death; physical death often became the end result of bearing witness to the truth. As a result, the term “martyr” became synonymous with one who sacrificed his/her life to bear witness to truth.

John also records Jesus’ words in John 14:6, “I am…the truth…” He bore witness to Himself (John 8:14). He was the faithful witness to truth. The Scripture writers gave their experientially revealed witness to truth. Jesus had personally sent them out for this purpose with the Holy Spirit’s power.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)

If we humble ourselves to receive God’s truth and walk in it, we will also bear witness to the Truth (Jesus) today that will set people free.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”

(John 8:31-32).

By Johnathan Clark, Associate Pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church and a physician in Springfield, Missouri
This article was reprinted from the February 2009 Present Truth Magazine

Faithful in the Small Things

When I was 10 years old, my parents decided that my brother and I should learn to work by taking a paper route. The Longview Daily News hired teens to deliver their papers in the afternoons, and a route came open in our area. The minimum age to have a paper route was 12, so we put the route in my brother's name, but we shared the route.

Our paper route was in essence a mini-business that contracted with the Daily News. Every day all the papers for our route were dropped off on our driveway, then whether rain or shine, snow or sleet, hot or cold, we were responsible to deliver them.

At the end of each month, we owed the Daily News a fee to cover the cost of all the papers they delivered to our house. To be able to pay that fee, we had to collect money from our customers. If we collected from every customer, there was a profit left over for us. If we failed to collect, our failures ate directly into our profit margin.

One of the key ways to make extra money in the paper route was through tips. Many customers had special requests, such as the paper being delivered on their doorstep or to a special box. As we were faithful to make sure their papers were delivered on time in the way they expected them, we would often receive tips to increase our income.

Every once in a while, we would end the paper route with an extra paper or two. This was not good news, since it most likely meant that we had missed someone. Not only was missing someone a sure way to work yourself out of a tip, it could also generate an official complaint. Too many official complaints could cost a paperboy his business with the Daily News. Therefore, some evenings we had to make the extra effort to find out who we had missed, take them their paper, and apologize. This brought extra motivation to get the job done right the first time.

Jesus was also trained to work from a young age, and out of His experience and revelation, He taught this principle:

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is
unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
(Luke 16:10-12)

Simply put, God has freedom to give His children revelation based on how faithful they have been with their assignments and how they have handled His money.

As Americans, we have a history of practicing this principle. People are generally required to start at the bottom of a business and work their way up by proving they are faithful and dependable. They often started with jobs that were considered unpleasant or difficult but promised the opportunity to advance to something better. Banks would only give loans to people with a good credit history of proving they can take a loan and pay it back in a faithful way. Good credit could take years to build, but the reward was easier to access to needed money. That said, over the past 10-20 years, our society left this principle, and of late we have paid the consequences.


Any time society operates on the basis of a biblical principle, it will receive God's blessings as a result. Any time a society leaves a biblical principle, it will suffer the consequences as well. Our nations current consequences has been the mortgage crisis caused by defaults of sub-prime mortgages and the recession that followed, including the resulting bankruptcies of many of the nations largest corporations and banks.

Jesus continued His teaching on faithfulness saying,

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's,
who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:12)

My wife, Holly, and I have the current assignment from God to teach our children how to be faithful with what is not their own. Our youngest son is learning how to mow our lawn, walk the dog, take care of the trash, and clean the kitchen as if they were his own. In addition to household responsibilities, our daughter is learning how to faithfully operate a mini-business of shipping items sold on eBay. In addition to his lawn mowing business, our oldest son as the added assignment of learning to faithfully use a credit card without going into debt with it.

In spite of economic recession and a society riddled with unsecured debt, those who have learned to be faithful in the small things will prosper in the years to come.



Benjamin Davis is Senior Pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church.
(This article has been reprinted from Present Truth magazine, February 2009 issue)