Character 15

Php. 4:8 ... "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things."

This passage presents to us a set of eight mental dispositions that will develop genuine Christian character in anyone who will admit them into his personal psychology. In earlier articles in this series I have asserted that only Christ is the standard of good character, for He is the only person in the Bible to whom that word is applied, (Heb. 1:3). If space permitted, it would not be difficult to show that Jesus exemplified each quality in this set in His life. That is, in fact, the last thought expressed before these things were thus named: "And the God of peace, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus," (v.7).

There is something to be noticed in this statement that is very important:  It shows that the essence of character resides in your inner being, not in your outer being. The typical prescription for character development taught in public venues addresses the external features of a person. They present a formula of conduct that regulates outward behavior. Not only do they fall short because they ignore Christ, but also because they address only the surface of our human nature.  But the essence of a person is the inner self, and that means his mind and heart. Observe that the eight qualities presented in Php. 4:8 have a dual reference, first, they involve the mind and heart, and second, they involve one's union with Christ.

The first one named is TRUTH. To possess Christian character, a person must recognize truth, esteem truth, and commit himself to truth. This is the case with Jesus in a way that far exceeds even the best person among us, for He is equated with truth. He is the very embodiment of truth. This is what we are told in John 1:14, "The Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." This declares that Jesus is "full of truth," and recall that Heb. 1:3 states that He is 'the exact representation of God's nature." This means that truth is a part of Jesus' character, because God is true. Of this we are assured in Heb. 6:18 which says that "it is impossible for God to lie." God is the essence of truth; He speaks nothing but truth; and all His actions are in perfect harmony with truth.

As the impression of God's nature into the baby born in Bethlehem was His character, the impression of Jesus into the life of a person is Christian character. And one great part of that impression is conformity to truth. Until Christ is admitted into a person's life, commitment to truth is not established within him. In the description of unregerate men in Rom. 3, it states that "their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips." In v.4 preceding it says, "Let God be true, though every man be found a liar." None of us want to think we don't look good, that what we say is silly, and that what we believe is wrong. So, we take care to compliment each other, approve each other, and agree with each other, even though our heart sees "the other" quite differently. It takes cour-age to speak only the truth. Actually, when a time comes that you cannot speak the truth because it would hurt too much, the proper thing to do is say nothing. It is not necessary always to give a reply.

A great part of Christian character is being truthful. That means to search for what is fundamentally true in everything, expel from your thinking whatever you find not true, and stand by the truth no matter what. Pro. 23:23 says it thus, "Buy truth and do not sell it. Get wisdom and instruction and understand-ing." Truth is pure gold, anything less is iron pyrite. Something false is often very popular and attract-ive, but in reality it has no value. I like what Anatole France (1844-1924, Nobel Prize in Literature) once said, "If 50 million people say something stupid, it's still stupid!" To be like Christ in character, always search for truth, incorporate it in your thinking, and cling to it though others may ridicule you for doing so.

Character 14

Mat. 5:10-12 ... "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

To be persecuted implies there is something you believe in that others reject, and when you refuse to give up your belief to please them, they make you suffer for it. Therefore, to have this component of good character, loyalty, there must be something you hold to be very important and very precious. And for Christians, that is, above all else, Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior. This final Beatitude extends the thought and meaning of the fourth in v.6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for right-eousness." In the essay in this series on it, it was stated that faith in Christ and obedience to His teach-ing results in Him conferring His righteousness upon you. A person who has Christian character will forfeit his life rather than compromise his faith or forsake obedience to Christ, because he puts first "the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," (Mat. 6:33). When you rank something first, everything else is second, third, or less in order. The fear of being persecuted is therefore of lower importance and persuasion than "the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," and the adamant Christian will submit to terrible treatment rather than deny them.

The history of Christianity has preserved a record of the fortitude of men and women who were so loyal to Christ that they submitted to horrible treatment rather than deny and desert allegiance to their Lord. They were beheaded, hung, burned at the stake, slain by gadiators or fed to wild animals before a multi-tude of blood-thirsty spectators. They are immortalized in the moving hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers," which is frequently sung in church assemblies. Though dedicated Christians are persecuted with cruel physical torment, or emotionally with demonizing ridicule, they will not give up their superior desire to praise Christ. Their commitment to please Him is far greater than the urge to please an ungodly society to escape its ire and brutality.

To abandon loyalty to Christ will quieten the ungodly multitude, but the reward is no greater than to be left alone and ignored. Jesus said that to stand resolute and immoveable against the sinful mass will lead you to a "reward in heaven (which) is great." That reward is depicted in Rev. 7:7-17. I urge you to turn to that passage and carefully read it, for space here will not admit its quotation. You, the reader, may then decide which reward is greater and more enduring, forsaking loyalty to Christ to avoid present persecution, or enjoying the beauty and bliss of heaven for eternity.

It is my observation that a great many "Christians" are not so loyal to Christ and yield to the pressure of an ungoldly society in countless particular attitudes, values, behavior and lifestyle. It seems obvious our real guiding principle is to be like the norm about us to fit in and not draw attention to ourselves. When "put on the spot" in some situation -- yield to pop culture to blend in, or oppose it to maintain loyaly to Christ and His model of mind and conduct -- so many of us chose the prevailing lifestyle. We may make this choice and harmonize with the ungoldy lifeview and behavior, but it betrays a character flaw. And, it costs us in more ways than we care to admit. It is very often true that there is so little difference between a "Christian" and the admittedly irreligious that they can hardly be differentiated. Would to God we had a change of heart and put loyalty to Christ first, even if it displeases others and riles society against us. 

Character 13

Mat. 5:9 ... "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called 'sons of God'."

In other articles in this series, we have seen that Jesus is the only model for best character, for the word "character" is used only one time in the New Testament, and then it is applied to Jesus, (Heb. 1:3). In this article, the emphasis is upon peace as an essential of true character, for it is exmplified in Christ. We are told in Isa. 9:6 that He is the Prince of Peace. His great work on earth was to establish peace between man and God, as well as peace between man and his fellow man. He taught His disciples to be peacemakers. When He sent them out on a tour of Galilee to proclaim His gospel, He told them, "What-ever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house'," (Luk. 10:5). In Rom. 12:18, all Christians are instructed, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." If peace cannot be estab-lished between a Christian and someone else, it should not be because the Christian has not gone to the limit in the effort to bring it about. A disciple of Christ must always be open to making peace, being ready and willing to put away tension and suspend the agitation that prevents peace.

There are people with whom it is not possible to achieve peace and maintain it.  They are intractible, suspicious of everyone's intentions, and seem to think anyone who approaches them is a threat. This is inplied in the words, "if possible," in Rom. 12:18. This writer once knew a man who attended church each Sunday and thought himself a Christian. But he criticized everyone, found fault with everyone, and was quick to argue with anger. He obviously had a character flaw and was detrimental to the local church's effort to project the spirit of Christ to the surrounding community. The good character of the many was compromised by the irrascible temper of this one person. When someone is of this nature, he is blind to Jesus' model, which features peace.

It is the mission of Christians to persuade people who are not disciples to discover in Jesus the best way of life in this world and the reward of life in heaven in eternity. The effort to persuade is not (speaking metaphorically) by "closing doors, building walls, and burning bridges" in relating to people about you. Such hostile and repulsive action will present a false image of Christ and turn people more completely away from Him and from the salvation of their souls. It is the goal of the genuine Christian to "open doors, dismantle walls, and build bridges" to gain friendly access to people about them. This is the Way of  Peace, the Way of Christ, and a large part of the essense of good character.

Character 12

Mat. 5:8 ... "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

In this series of articles the objective is to advocate the best model of character to be that which is seen in the life of Christ and in His teaching as recorded in the New Testament. In earlier articles the case was presented for Jesus' life to be the superior character model. Then, attention was turned to the Beati-tudes which Jesus stated in Mat. 5:3-12 in the effort to commend each of them as a component of true character. Thus far, five of them have been featured: humility, feeling sorrow for the presence of sin and its damage in human life, gentleness, righteousness, and being merciful. In this article we shall focus our attention upon the sixth, which is given in v.8, "Blessed are the pure in heart."

The word "heart" is here used metaphorically for affective mental activity.  It has nothing to do with the physical organ that pumps blood through the body. But there is an analogous relationship involved. As the work of a healthy heart is essential to keep the body alive, the work of the mental heart is neccesary to maintain spiritual life. We all know people whose physical heart failed. They died and were buried. If one's mental heart ceases to function, they become spiritually dead. They keep on living physically and go about the regular course of daily life as usual. But spiritually they are dead. A great many people of the earth's population are physically alive but spiritually dead. Because they do not have pure hearts, in the sense Jesus used the word, they have no spiritual life.

I have not invented this idea, but rather took it from the New Testament, where people whose hearts have not been purified from sin are spoken of as being spiritually "dead." One of the many such state-ments is Eph. 2:1, "You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world." The people to whom these words were first addressed were very much alive in the usual sense; they were going about their ordinary daily activities. But their hearts were defiled by "trespasses and sins," that is, their way of life was beyond the limit (trespass) of God's stand-ard, and it fell short (sin) of what God intended for them . Trespasses and sins soil the heart just as dirt and mud soil the body. Soap and water will remove dirt and mud from your skin, but it will not remove the moral filth of trespasses and sins from your heart. Only the grace of God through Christ can do that, as it did for the Ephesians. We are told that "even when we (the writer and his readers) were dead in our transgressions," God "made us alive together with Christ ... and raised us up with Him." As Jesus was resurrected to life after He was crucified, those who respond to God's will by faith and obedience are "raised up" from spiritual death to the fulness of spiritual life. In being "raised up," which is the same as being "born again" (John 3:3,5), the "heart" is purified, spiritually cleansed. This is essential to attaining Christian character, the major thesis of these articles.

Once the heart has been cleansed, it is the individual's task to keep it pure. This is an essential task for a very important reason, which is revealed in Pro. 23:7, "As (one) thinks in his heart, so is he." Our exterior self is determined by our our interior self, which is our heart. A person with an impure heart cannot have good character, for sooner or later the impurity within will emerge in his speech, behavior, and disposition and betray what his real nature is. What constitutes an impure heart? And what kind of action does it produce in outward activity? Jesus answers these questions in Mat. 15:19, "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." The human activities that warp society and make it dysfunctional, have their origin in the attitudes, thoughts, ideas, and moods of the heart. There is a common belief that you can think whatever you like, if you keep it to yourself. That is, you can imagine or fantasize anything, as long as you keep to yourself. This cannot be done, according to the Lord. You cannot "keep the lid" on your inner self always; eventually the rotten-ness will escape. It is like the decaying matter at the bottom of a swamp. The decay emits foul gas, which colletcs into noxious bubbles that break loose, rise to the top, burst on the surface of the water, and befoul the atmosphere. How often do we see such happen in human behavior? A person who has never attracted attention enters a school one morning and kills as many little children and teachers as he or she can with an automatic rifle.

If you keep your heart pure, only goodness, kindness, and benevolence will surface in your speech, deeds, and moods. You will be an asset to society, promote the welfare of many people, and brighten the scene wherever you happen to be. Your character will fit the model of Jesus, for He never displayed anything but what was pure.

Character 11

Mat. 5:7 ... "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

In these articles on the importance, the value, and the need for good character, the assertion is made that the best model is Christian character, as revealed to us in the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ. The scope of His model is far greater than these articles will encompass. But what they will project, I hope, is enough of that model to encourage the reader to recognize its superiority and concede to build into his own life the components revealed. The focus so far has been the essentials of character commended in the Beatitudes with which Jesus introduced the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Four of them have already been featured in previous articles:  humility, feeling sorrow for the presence of sin and its damage in human life, gentleness, and righteousness. The fifth one is presented in v.7, being merciful. To be merciful means to extend mercy to fellow humans in situations where it is justified and will effect improvement.  Mercy is justified when a person has blundered, caused trouble, and offended. If the offender is amenable to guilt for the problem he has caused and indicates the desire to rectify it and avoid further offense, mercy to that person will result in significant improvement.

Mercy is essentially suspending the demand of justice and giving a person a second chance after he has blundered. This is how God shows us mercy. It is demonstrated in John 8 when a woman was arrested in the very act of adultery and brought to Jesus for justice.  The prevailing law specified that the woman should be stoned to death. Jesus did not approve of what the woman had done, for it was an act of sin.  Neither did He deny the application of the Law, but He did modify it by reminding the accusers that another law impinged on the case and must be applied as well: "The one who is without sin among you,  let him be the first to throw a stone at her," (v.7). The implication in the words "without sin" is being innocent of the specific sin for which the arrest was made, adultery. Jesus meant that any one of the accusers who was not himself guilty of adultery was to be first to throw a stone and begin the woman's destruction. Verse 9 reports that one-by-one the men quietly slipped away from the scene.  Soon only the woman was left in the presence of Jesus. He looked up and asked her where were the men who had arrested her and sought her condemnation. Verse 11 then reports, "She said, 'No one, Lord.' And Jesus said, 'I do not condemn you, either. Go, from now on sin no more.'" This is a remark-able case of mercy extended. Jesus perceived that the woman could learn from the incident that adultery is a sin and is due death, which is really the penalty for ALL sin, (Rom. 6:23). So, He suspended the application of the law and extended to her a second chance for continued life, but with an exceedingly important provision: "Go, from now on sin no more." Again, the reference is to the same sin, for the woman would indeed sin again, (I John 1:8,10).  But this woman saved by mercy must NEVER commit adultery again! That prevention was indeed within her ability to accomplish.

Everyone one of us, from the person whose occupation is religious down to the criminal in prison, sins and deserves the penalty for sin. And our continuation in life testifies that God is extending mercy to us with the intention that we will recognize our sin, feel genuine remorse for it (Beatitude No. 1), seek God's forgiveness, and be released from the terrible penalty impending upon us. This disposition of God toward us is revealed in II Pet. 3:9, "The Lord ... is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." God does not want to zap sinners, for He gave them a soul in His own Image, (Gen. 1:27). He wants us to see our sin, repent of it, and "from now on sin no more." He wants everyone to live in His presence in heaven for eternity. This is the purpose and great blessing of mercy.

We all know that there are people who refuse to show mercy and forgive a person of an offense. Those who hold such grudges are beset with a very serious character flaw. In fact, it is a character flaw that is fatal. In Mat. 18:21-35 Jesus told a parable about a man who was released from an enormous debt by a great act of mercy. But that man then refused to remit the small debt of a man and had him imprisoned. Because of this iron disposition of being unmerciful, Jesus said the man must be "handed over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him." That is, the mercy that excused him of a colossal debt was withdrawn until he should repay it. And that "until" meant "forever," because the debt was too immense to repay. Jesus concludes the parable by stating a principle by which God deals with man: "My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."

To exclude yourself from God's mercy, the only thing that separates you from eternal torment, just do not be merciful. Mercy is, therefore, a basic component of real character, and a wonderful and beautiful thing it is. And finally, it does not cost you anything to show mercy to another person.  But it will cost you an eternal fortune if you don't.