We are all at our best when it counts. But what are we like when no one's looking? That's where character comes in - being consistent even when it doesn't seem to matter. Courage. Discipline. Vision. Endurance. Love. These character qualities are quickly becoming endangered. All too often we hear of marriages falling apart, governments lying, businesses cheating and scandals rocking the church. But with God's guidance and strength, we can maintain character that lasts despite temptations and troubles.
Character: Preserving Endangered Qualities
Character – the word is seldom used in the Bible, and we don’t see it very often in newspapers or hear it on television. Yet we know what it means, and we immediately recognize its absence.
People who never use the word character look around them at junior-high promiscuity, busy abortion clinics and the current epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, and they mourn the passing of morality. They see elected officials taking bribes, business leaders demanding kickbacks and investors parlaying inside information into untold wealth, and they lament the demise of integrity. Or they read about battered wives, jobless husbands and abused children, and they wonder what is happening to caring.
Character, a wise person once said, is what we do when no one is looking. Character is not what we have done, but who we are.
Endangered Character Qualities
People give evidence of strong character in hundreds of ways every day:
- A woman confronts her terror of public speaking so she can tell her church congregation about her miraculous answer to prayer. That’s courage.
- A man vows to get up twenty minutes early every morning to jog around the block, and he keeps his vow. That’s discipline.
- A high-school teacher patiently draws out an inattentive student and discovers she is a gifted writer. That’s vision.
- A college student, overwhelmed by tests and term papers, considers dropping out, but decides to stay and study instead. That’s endurance.
These four traits are all on my “endangered character quality” list. They aren’t glamorous, and they aren’t easy. Therefore a lot of people try to get along without them. But the most endangered quality of all is the one that we all think we want – love.
Unfortunately, when we say we want the character quality of love, most of us mean only that we want to be loved. We hope people will admire us and treat us affectionately, and we will try to do the same for them. But people of character go beyond the warm fuzzies to the hard work of loving. They do this in many different ways, often without realizing that they are showing strength of character:
- A woman refuses to make any more excuses for her husband when he misses work because of a hangover. That’s tough love.
- A man notices his daughter’s tear-stained face, and so he sits down and encourages her to tell him what’s on her heart. That’s tenderhearted love.
- A parent gives up an attractive job promotion so the family can stay in the town where they have made friends and put down roots. That’s sacrificial love.
- A young widow offers forgiveness to the drunken driver who hit and killed her husband. That’s radical love.
Love, says the apostle Paul, is the most important Christian character trait (1 Corinthians
Developing a Strong Character
Character cannot be developed through good resolutions and checklists. It usually requires a lot of hard work, a little pain and years of faithfulness before any of the virtues are consistently noticeable in us.
Developing character, however, does not have to be a grim task. There are secrets to developing each of the character qualities. More important, Jesus Christ – the only person who has ever consistently excelled in every virtue we could name – offers to develop his character in us as we follow Him. This is an offer we can hardly refuse.
Salvation Is Free
No matter how wonderful your character is, it will never be wonderful enough to earn God’s approval. As important as character is, it is not a way to earn salvation. That is because salvation cannot be earned – not even by courage, discipline, vision, endurance and love.
Salvation is a gift from the heavenly Father to us. It cost Him everything – the death of His beloved only Son. It costs us nothing. Hard work cannot earn it; neither can good behavior or sterling character. The only way we can enjoy a relationship with God is by coming to Jesus Christ, our hands outstretched and empty, and saying, “Lord, I want to follow you. Please take me into your family, scrub me, give me new clothes and make me like you.” And Jesus will do exactly that. He will take us as we are and assure us that we are His forever. Then – slowly at first, but surely – He will mold us and shape us until we resemble Him.
This book is for two kinds of people. First, it is for you who, whether Christian or not, admire character strength and see the urgent need for it in our society and in yourself. Second, it is for you who, having given your life to Christ, yearn for spectacular transformations and dazzling displays of virtue.
Character is our world’s most pressing need. If all five billion of us had strong characters, there would be no wars, no hunger, no family breakups, no crime, no poverty. We will not live in such a perfect world until Christ returns and the earth is made new, but, in the meantime, we should not despair. To the extent that our own characters grow stronger, the world will be a better place.
POWER VERSE
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13, NIV ~ "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love"
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