Faithfulness sustains commitment long after its original reason fades. [definitional]
Faithfulness might be called the inertia of the soul. It keeps the soul on the path on which it started, even after the original occasion that led it onto it no longer exists.
XREF: Parallels the physics concept of inertia applied metaphorically to moral life.
Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simm…, loc. 9091