Character 7

In previous articles I have asserted that Christ is the only real model for good character.  By looking to Him in the way He lived and by considering carefully what He taught, we can discern the elements that constitute a good character. In this article, and those remaining on this subject, we will do just that. First, we shall examine a special section of one of His sermons, the one popularly known as the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5-6-7). His introduction was a set of blessings He pronounced on the person who will incorporate into his life certain personality traits which He names. Since the word for "bless-ing" in Latin was beatus, and the Latin Vulgate had a great deal of influence on the earliest English translations of the Bible, these statements in Mat. 5:3-12 have for centuries been called the Beatitudes. Actually, these traits are essential components of real character. The emphasis will be upon the specific traits named and not upon the blessing that rewards the person who builds these qualities of spirit into his life. That is the emphasis for another study.

Note the words, "who builds these qualities of spirit into his life." They are not external things that are put on as clothing; they are spiritual things that are introduced into the heart to permeate thought, feel-ing, and perspective and thus reconstitute one's inner being into a far better person, even the best a mortal man can be. Character models that seek only to shape and regulate outward expression really do not produce genuine character. What Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes are to be taken into the heart and refashion it into a person whose inner and outer lives are congruent. (See Pro. 4:23.)

Reputation is often taken to be character, but it is not. Character is what you really are; reputation is what people think you to be. That may be said another way: Character is what God sees when He looks at you; reputation is what people see when they look at you. A person's life is at its best when reputation and character match, but that is seldom the way it is. And the mismatch goes both ways. Sometimes a person's reputation extends no further than his family and a small circle of friends and acquaintances. But he may have an excellent character. Because he is quiet, humble, and unobtrusive, not many people realize the excellence of his character. I have known many such people and considered them to be the solid foundation of their community and church. On the other hand, there are people whose reputation is big and widely known. They project themselves; they want to be seen and heard; they want to be up front of any group they are in. But if you measure them by the canon presented in the New Testament, you discover that, while big on reputation, they have significant deficiencies in character.

When you see people at church, you are only seeing one side of them. If you could see them in their routine at home, at work, in business, and in  public interaction, you might recognize quite a different person than you know at church. There are some people who do know them in both both settings, and they are well-acquainted with their duplicity; but for many reasons, they keep what they know private. But, the lord knows, for His knowledge of man is complete. We are told in Psa. 14:2 that "the Lord [looks] down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand [margin: act wisely], who seek after God." A person of good character will have a reputation that matches his char-acter, at least by people who know him in all areas of life.

(* Beginning in the next article we will begin to consider the 8 essentail traits of good character taught by Jesus in the Beatitudes of Mat. 5:3-12).

 

Character 6

       In concluding the previous essay, I made the point that it is not man's place to construct a model of good character, although many have done it and doubtless will continue to do it. In Jer. 10:23, Jehovah through the prophet, stated that "A man's way is not in himself; nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps." In composing these essays on good character, I therefore resisted the urge to draw up a list of personality traits and proclaim, "When these are integrated into one's life, they will develop in that individual a good character." Neither would I assemble such a list from the writings of philosophers, social scientists, and psychologists, which I have often read. What I would do, and it's all I have done, is point to Jesus as the God-given example of good character and encourage everyone to investigate His life and then model yours after Him. After all, that is what we are told to do in I Pet. 2:21, "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps." The closer a person comes to Jesus' perfect example, the more excellent his character becomes. No one can find a better way, or even one that is comparable.

      In the same context of thought, we are told in Eph. 4:11-13 that God has given us a sure and effec-tual way to bring us to "the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ." The inspired writer might just have said "good character," but instead he used the phrases "mature man" and "measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ." They are, however, synonymous. The words "mature" and "fulness" in this verse refer to the same thing, completeness. Jesus was a complete Man, that is, He possessed a fully developed character, having the substance of God Himself imprinted within Him.

      Let us focus attention for a moment on the word "good" in the phrase "good character." The idea of good is usually considered to be a moral entity in and of itself. But in my own study and insight into the term, I have come to the conclusion that ... something is good if it fulfills whatever God intended for the thing to be and if it contains all that God mean for it to have.  Therefore, a character is good if it makes a person fulfill God's will for an individual and if it contains all that God meant to be there. The passage last considered, Eph. 4:11-13, speaks of "the fulness of Christ." That means that He accomplishmed all that God sent Him to earth to do and that He contained all in His personality that God meant to be there. This has been, and now is, true of no other man. Therefore, Jesus is the ONLY model of good character. Only of Christ does Scripture say that a person should aim to achieve the "measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness" of that person.

      It is indeed proper to make a list of the components of a good character, because it will facilitate the understanding and application of them in one's life. But the list should be drawn from a careful study of Jesus' life as recorded in the New Testament, not from the musings of a philosopher, social scientist, or psychologist. To discover Jesus' attitudes and see how He responded to the varying circumstances of daily life can be accomplished by anyone who will read closely the Four Gospels. As we think about the challenge to develop good character, this is the only course that Christians should think of choosing.

      We have therefore come to the place in these essays where we should start looking at the specific traits of good character. Since the New Testament uses the word only once (in Heb. 1:3), and then in reference to Christ, there is no passage that discusses the subject with direct reference to the word "character." There are, however, several passages that do deal with the subject without using the word and reveal the constituent components we seek. Since Christ is THE model for character, we should expect these passages either to refer to Him or to be the substance of something He taught. In the remainder of these essays two such passages will be considered.

Christian Character 5

Heb, 1:3 ... "He (Jesus) is the radiance of [God's] glory and the exact representation of His nature."

      Please fix your attention on the words "of His nature." They translate the original in Greek, which is upostasewV autou (hupostaseôs autou).  The word upostasewV literally means "reality" or "substance," and in this case refers to the nature of God Himself. When we consider the composition of our bodies, we easily understand that we are made of earthly elements fashioned into flesh and bones and various organs. But what is God composed of? This question would take us far beyond the limit of human capacity. We know that He is not made of material elements, for Jesus said in John 4:24 that "God is spirit." Whatever spirit is (which is God's nature) is what the word upostasewV in Heb. 1:3 refers to; and it says that the character of Jesus perfectly corresponds to it. In other words, character takes shape and is perfected the more the individual is modeled after God. And since John 14:9 says we see God in Christ, the last statement may be rephrased to say: Character is shaped and perfected the more the individual is modeled after Christ.

As I was developing this series of articles, I could have made a list of the qualities that seem to me to constitute and define good character. But I knew that was the wrong way to go about it. It is not my prerogative to make such a decision and bring forth such a list. I believe that no one, not even moral philosophers, have the ability to do it irrefutably. In my study of philosphy, both in university and in private, I have read with interest their various prescriptions for good character. And they are indeed varied, as one rejects the others to replace them with his own.

One example is that of Aristotle (384-322 BC) in his great work called the Nicomachian Ethics. He defines character in terms of what he called "The Golden Mean."

"The qualities of character can be arranged in triads, in each of which the first and last qualities will be extremes and vices, and the middle quality a virtue or an excellence. So, between cowardice and rashness is courage; between stinginess and extravagance is liberality; between sloth and greed is ambition; between humility and pride is modesty; between secrecy and loquacity is honesty; between moroseness and buffoonery is good humor; between quarrelsomeness and flattery is friendship; and between indecisiveness and impulsiveness is self-control."

This seems quite convincing, and if you read no one but Aristotle, you might think that here is a defi-ition of character that can be used to advantage. The only trouble is, if you consult another philosopher, you find that he rejects both Aristotle and others and constructs his own model of character. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), for example, had this to say about Aristotle and his disciples:

"All these were attempts of the Greeks to check their own violence and impulsiveness of charater; more truly they reflected the Greek feeling that passions are not of themselves vices, but the raw material of both vice and virtue, according as they function in excess and disproportion, or in measure and harmony."

This German philosopher, who was an atheist, constructed his own definition of character. A generation later, Nazi ideologists  applied Nietzschean philosophy, and thus was created the monster that disrupted Europe in the 1930-1945 period. One can have "good character" by the Aristotelian standard, or even "good character" by the Nietzschean standard, and yet have a contemptible personality and lifestyle by the Christtian standard. In future articles, the Christian model of good character will be presented,

Christian Character 4

       Early in His ministry, Jesus chose 12 men to be His apostles. They were probably quite ordinary men, for they were from the common occupations of the time and place and included fishermen and a tax collector. They exhibited human frailties and passions such as we do now and which hinder us from achieving exemplary lives. Here and there in the Four Gospels these human problems make their appearance among these men. So we are much impressed when we read in Acts 4:13, "Now as [the Jewish High Council] observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, [they] began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." Peter and John, formerly simple Galilean fishermen, had not had the advantage of formal training in the rabinic schools of Jerusalem to make them suave, polished men like those before whom they were being tried. But there was something extraordinary about their demeanor that the judges could not help but notice, and the only explanation for it was that they "had been with Jesus."

      For three years Peter, John, and the other apostles had felt the impact of the personality of Christ upon them. That impact had changed them from men who engaged in petty squabbles over rank, who wanted to respond to insult with violence, and who fled their Master in fear in His moment of trial. In short, they had become men of character in the true sense of the word. The impression of Jesus' nature upon them had transformed them into men who wanted to serve others rather than be served, who returned good for evil as a matter of course, and who willingly sacrificed themselves to glorify God. During their time with Jesus they had acquired from Him such qualities as reverence to God, love of truth, purity of mind, courage, self-control, integrity, and all the rest we associate with good character.

    Coming to these qualities that constitute character leads back to Heb. 1:3, where the New Testament, in its solitary use (in Greek) of the word "character," applies it to Jesus. If we are not careful, we will presume to define for ourselves what constitutes character.  As Christians, we should not look to human concensus for such definition, but realize that character is conformity to a high standard that we our-selves do not determine.

      About 25 years ago someone  designed a program called "Character Counts" and promulgated it in schools across the nation. I first became aware of it in August 1999 when it was adopted in the high school where I was a teacher. I was initially enthusiastic about it, because if there is anything we need to instill in our youth, it is good character. It is more lacking in the current generation than it was during the 1990s. But when I looked at the program carefully, I discovered I could not accept the character model it used. It featured one that had been drawn from the human disciplines such as psychology and philosophy. I do not think we can develop our own model, because what might be considered good character by one society would not be judged so by another. Just think of the models used by Nazi Germany, Marxist communism, and radical extremists.

      I was asked by my school in 1999 to introduce in our first teacher in-service the character model to be taught . It was a surprise to many when I rejected the national model and proposed instead the model that has been featured in the New Testament for two housand years.  That is the model centered upon Jesus in what He taught and the kind of life He lived.

Christian Character 3

       The word character is not used a single time in the King James Version and only three times in a translation so recent as the New American Standard. But the idea of what we mean by the term is an essential subject of emphasis in the Bible. The Biblical model of good character is without doubt Jesus, and there is one place which especially demonstrates this with reference to the derivation of our word "character." In presenting Jesus in his roles of supreme Prophet, Creator, and Savior, Heb. 1:3 also states that "He is the radiance of [God's] glory and the exact representation of His nature." Notice the phrase that calls Jesus "the exact representation of [God's] nature," because the two words "exact repre-sentation" translate only one Greek word. And that word is carakthr (kah-RAK-tayr … character), which is the original of the English word character. 

      It's very interesting and very significant that this is the only occurence of the word in the Greek New Testament and that then it is applied only to Jesus. In several other places Jesus is called the eikon (aye-KOHN …image) of God, but this word is often appplied to others also. In fact, in Gen. 1:26, all men are declared to be made "in the image of God." This means we are all endowed with a living spirit that corresponds to the anture of God who gace it, (Gen. 2:7). Of course, Jesus possessed the divine image to a degree we can never attain, but nevertheless we all do have at least a spark of that divine nature within us, (Jas. 3:9). But never of any man except Jesus does the Bible say that he is "the exact representation of God the Father. Any valid and profitable study of character must therefore begin with a careful examination of the Person of Jesus in the Scriptures.

      There is yet more in this phrase of Heb. 1:3 to enlighten us. In 1st Century Koinê Greek, the verb form of carakthr is carasso … (KAH-ras-so … to stamp, impress). It was specifically used to signify stamping coins in a mint with a picture and an inscription. There is little doubt the writer of Hebrews had that precise idea in mind when he aimed at informing his readers about the true nature of Jesus. And when they read this special word, they would have made the precise connection easily.  When the die was stamped into the metal, it left in it a perfect, exact representation of the image and wording on the die. Likewise, when a baby was born in a stable in Bethlehem to Mary, God as the die stamped Himself into that tiny baby of flesh and left therein the exact representation of Himself. This is what Heb. 1:3 is telling us. It also clarifies what Jesus meant in Jno. 14:9 when He said to Philip, "Have I been so long with you, and yet have you not come to know Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father."

      When we begin to grasp these essential ideas, we are already beginning to develop an idea of what character truly is and why it's so important. Character is not merely a configuration of certain virtues in an individual that gives him moral strength. In its original connotation, which has just been shown in reference to Jesus, character is what is left when one's life has been impacted by the person of Jesus. When God was stamped into human flesh, the character of Jesus was the result; and when Jesus is stamped into the life of an individual, Christian character is the result.

Christian Character 2

THE PROBLEM OF CHARACTER FLAWS

      Sometimes it is said that a person has a character flaw. In such a case, the individual usually has most of the components of a good character. But one of the necessary constituents is poorly developed, warped, or missing, and sooner or later it will show up in his life in bad behavior. Such a case happened in an outdoor tent meeting, when an evangelist was preaching the Gospel very effectively.  Each night people were persuaded to repent, confess faith in Jesus, and be baptized. Interest and enthusiasm was growing each day, and each night more people crowded into the tent to listen to the preacher.  Then the worst happened in response to a very small irritation. A stray cat had wandered into the tent and up onto the platform where the preacher was speaking. Lonely, hungry, and forsaken, the little creature began to rub against the ankles of the evangelist.  This became a distraction to him and a mounting irritation. When he almost stumbled over the cat, the man's temper flared. He viciously kicked the kittie to the wall of the tent. The people were shocked at the preacher's outrage and cruelty to the poor feline. One after the other, they arose and left the tent, until half were gone. The next evening, the attendance was very small; everyone in the community was describing the man's loss of temper and hateful treatment of the little cat. The next evening, no one appeared at the tent except the preacher. His opportunity to win more souls to Christ was lost. One of the greater features of good character is self-control, and the man demonstrated before everyone he lacked it. He had a character flaw, and it cost him the opportunity to finish the meeting with great success.

      We all have character flaws to some extent, and when the stress of life presses upon us, we cave in at the point of weakness. And it costs us dearly in our relationships with other people, especially the people closest to us. Another element of Christian character is sincerity. A play on words can be made with this term to demonstrate the main idea in it. It can be separated into two parts, sin- and -cerity. "Sin-" suggests the Latin word sinê (without), and "-cerity" suggests the Latin word cera (wax). This is not the actual derivation of the word "sincerity." It's rather a good analogy that reveals a vivid meaning.

      It is a fact that ancient Roman sculptors would inscribe on the base of a statue the two words sinê cera, meaning "without wax." A wealthy person would commission an artist to produce, e.g., a beautiful statue of a water nymph to place beside the pool in his ornamental garden. The artist would indeed make an exquisite statue that looked almost lifelike. But somewhere the thing would get chipped and blemished. He was not about to spend months producing another statue, which might also get cracked or chipped. So, he would simply reattach the chipped part with a bit of hard wax. The client would not notice it and so would display it proudly beside the pool. Then, on an oppressively hot summer day, the wax would melt and the chip would fall off. Reputable artists, however, when delivering a statue to a customer, would inscribe upon the bottom of it a guarantee ... sinê cera.

      A person without sincerity is one whose character is held together, so to speak, with wax. And when pressure is applied to him, the wax melts, and he falls apart. Surely, every reader of this has seen it happen to someone who was considered a solid person, and it quickly provoked great disappoinment. Do we not then use the vivid expression, "He came unglued!"?

Christian Character 1

      There are words in our language that we use so much they become trite and lose their significance. Character is one of those words. In fact, it has come to have contradictory meanings in various appli-cations. With admiration, when we wish to praise someone who uniformly exerts a good influence, we say he/she is "a person with character." On the other hand, we call someone a "character" who acts silly, or engages in unexpected, unusual behavior, or causes trouble and fouls things up. It goes without say-ing that when we state that "character is important," we are referring to its positive, beneficial nature rather than the negative connotation the word can have.

      As I contemplated the basic meaning involved in this term, I looked up its derivation and found its origin in the Greek word carakthr, which designated "a tool for engraving." The basic idea involved is something that is set or established. The ancient Greek had two main ways of writing, with a stylus on a wax tablet, or with an iron tool upon stone. When something was written on wax, it was easily erased by smoothing the wax with the other end of the stylus, with a finger, or by heating. But when a message was engraved on stone with hammer and iron point, it was put there to stay. To remove it, one had to exert great effort to chisel or sand away the inscription. I have never read or heard of a single inscription on wax that survived from ancient Greece, but thousands of lines of script chiseled in stone still exist.

      As philosophers and theologians pondered human nature, it occured to them that the constitution of some people is like a wax inscription, and for others it is like a configuration engraved in stone by iron. Hence the application of the word "character" from the iron engraving tool. A person without character is unstable and therefore undependable; neither he nor his works will endure. Like an inscription in wax, his life will vanish and leave nothing behind for anyone to read or use. But a person of charater has fixed qualities that do not move with the storms of life and changes in the enviornment.

                                                                    (There will be much more to come on this subject in future articles. BFW)