Life & Wisdom Quote by Edwin Louis Cole

Cole’s line is a compact piece of moral leverage: it takes a human virtue, “faithfulness,” and turns it into spiritual currency. The phrasing isn’t about being trustworthy to people first; it leapfrogs the social realm and aims straight at the divine relationship, where the stakes feel absolute. That’s the rhetorical trick. If trustworthiness is measured “to God,” then everyday integrity stops being situational and becomes totalizing. No loopholes, no PR fixes, no private exceptions.

The intent is pastoral but also disciplinary. Cole, writing within a late-20th-century evangelical self-help ecosystem, specializes in making character feel like a measurable output. “Faithfulness” here isn’t just sexual fidelity or religious assent; it’s reliability over time: show up, obey, persist, finish. In that framework, God’s trust becomes the ultimate promotion, the highest endorsement. The subtext: you don’t get spiritual authority, blessing, or calling by talent alone. You earn it through consistency when no one is watching.

There’s also a quiet power dynamic embedded in “trustworthy to God.” God, of course, doesn’t need data about your character; the line is really aimed at the believer’s imagination. It creates a moral audience that never leaves the room. That can be empowering - a way to dignify unseen labor - but it can also intensify scrutiny, making “faithfulness” a permanent performance review. Cole’s genius is how smoothly he turns devotion into a standard, and a standard into motivation.