Character Qualities of a Christian- Humility

          I have had an unordinary amount of free time recently, and so I have mainly used that time to blog. When I got to this quality, though, I figured that I would be able to write an article on humility. Then, as I started writing it, I realized that I didn’t even have a rudimentary understanding of humility. This article is my discoveries about humility that I pray are helpful to whoever may read this. I have come to realize that humility is something that is sorely lacking in the world today, but some of the world’s greatest people were humble. I would like to learn from people that have a reputation for humility, and what humility is, and also the dangers of pride.

            

           I want to take a quick look at two people in the Bible that were humble, and see what we can learn from them. The first person is Joseph, which I know is a typical person to study, but he was a very humble person, and I believe that something can learned from him. I love watching Joseph’s attitude throughout his life, which tends to remain as a general thankfulness to God. When he had a prestigious position in Potiphar’s house, he thanked God, when he was in jail, he still praised God, and when he became vizier he praised God. Now, I know that, had I been in Joseph’s position, I would’ve been sitting in jail, feeling forgotten by God, but when I became vizier, there would be a tendency in me to pat myself on the back (although physically impossible), telling myself that I had gotten there myself (in spite of my evil brothers). But I think above all, Joseph’s humility shows in Genesis 50:19, where Joseph’s brothers come before him, begging for mercy, and he almost laughs that they thought it necessary to do that. He asks, “Am I in the place of God?” This is translated as, “Yes, it is true that you guys tried to kill me, but instead sold me and faked my death, and I was sent to Egypt where I was falsely accused and thrown into jail, but on second thought, I have done way worse by sinning against my Creator, and why should I be taking the position of judge from God who put me in the political position. God put me here in this position, so why should I, as a lowly servant of God, be judging my brothers who he created and has a plan for, especially after He delivered me from despair and death?” Joseph realized his place and how little he was involved in the process of going from slave to vizier. The first step to humility is realizing the enormous difference between what we have done for God and what God has done for us.

            

           The second person that I want to look at is Jesus. This is one of the most amazing examples of humility. He created this earth, and died for it, yet He comes to earth and washes the feet of dirty, sinful humans. Jesus was well within his rights to come and live like a king, and demand that everyone bow in His presence, but He came and served others. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life [as] a ransom for many.” Jesus is the ultimate model of humility. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came to earth, and did the job of lowly servants, suffered for wretched sinners, and eventually died in one of the most treacherous, painful ways to die. He didn’t care about how things should be, or how unfair things were. The second step to humility is to strive to model Jesus’ humility.

            

           Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness¹. C.J. Mahaney, author of Humility: True Greatness, defines “humility” in a cut-and-dried style. This definition is what Joseph lived out in Genesis 50:19, that looking at ourselves in the blinding light of God’s holiness is a genuinely humbling experience. There are two general types of humility: outward humility and inward humility. Outward humility is the phrases such as, “Oh, it was nothing” or “Anyone could have done it”. Attitudes such as these are false humility and they are normally digging for reassurance on how incredible whatever that person did was. Genuine humility is the incredible feeling of being brought to your knees by the overwhelming realization of the difference between your incompetence and God’s omnipotence. 

            

           To finish this article with something practical, I want to give two examples of humility: false and genuine.

Example 1: You make a full court shot while the entire youth group is watching, and afterwards you are congratulated heavily. You cheeks then turn red and you quietly mumble, “Oh, there wasn’t much to it.” The youth leader then remarks how he appreciates your humility.

Example 2: After practicing three months for an offertory, you play it at church, and afterwards an elderly choir member pulls you aside, forcefully telling you that your piece was too loud and energetic. You nod and say that you will work on that (or something of that sort) and then reevaluate whether or not there was any truth to what the choir member said. Your action is then based off that, and your desire to please God.

            This is probably pretty obvious which one is fake and which one is genuine.* Fake humility is really camouflaged pride. To sum this all up in the words of Mahaney, “[T]ransfer all the glory to [God] and experience the promise and the pleasures of humility².

¹ C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, pg. 22

² C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, pg. 170

* If you’re still stumped one which is which, I’ll give you a cheat: the first is false humility, and the second is genuine humility.

Character Qualities of a Christian- Patience

            “Just be patient.” I cannot count the number of times that I have been told that phrase. Patience is one of the most difficult things for me, partly because it affects several things. When you don’t want to wait for God to work, you are impatient. When you get angry, you have “lost your patience”. When you are quick to give up or freak out, it is normally because you are impatient. Asking questions in the beginning of articles helps me better figure out how to grow in this area, so here goes. What is patience? What does the Bible say about patience? Why should we be patient? How can we as Christians improve in this area?

           

            The first question that I want to touch on is, “Why should we be patient?” This is important, because without answering this question adequately, the rest of the article has no purpose or direction. One reason why we should be patient is because everything is much sweeter when you have waited for it. If I ate at Pizza Hut and then went to Golden Corral right afterwards, the Golden Corral food wouldn’t taste as good as if I had not eaten anything for several hours before eating at Golden Corral. Another reason is because God commanded it (see Philippians 4:6). Later in this article, I will more or less attempt to answer this question a little bit better.

           

            What is patience? Well, I looked up the word “patience” in a thesaurus, and these are the words that I came up with: endurance, tolerance, persistence, fortitude, serenity, perseverance, stamina, forbearance, and a few others as well. That’s a long list to define, so that’s why those words are all summed up with one word: patience. Perseverance is working hard to finish a task; sticking with something. Endurance and stamina describe more of a level of how long a person can endure something (i.e. a race). Tolerance is when your four year-old brother is making weird noises with his face over and over and over again, and you just ignore it and don’t tell him to knock it off (although there is definitely a place for that). Persistence is asking over and over again for something until you get it. Now, obviously these words have multiple meanings, but those are just examples of what those words mean.

           

            What does the Bible say about patience? The answer is: a lot. In his second epistle to the church in Thessalonica, Paul says that he boasts about the church’s patience (2 Thessalonians 1:4). James says that the testing of our faith produces patience (James 1:3).  In Colossians, Paul tells the church to put on patience (Colossians 3:12). Patience is one of the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). There are so many other verses on patience in the Bible, but unfortunately I cannot mention them all. However, in this we see that patience is a virtue of many different aspects. Impatience leads to hurt relationships, short tempers, and missing some of the benefits of waiting for things.

           

            So how, as Christians, can we improve in this very important area of our lives? There is always a challenge in taking a command in scripture and practically applying it to our lives. It is not a skill that I have exactly developed, but this is my best attempt at it. I believe that patience and prayer go hand-in-hand, in the sense that without prayer, patience is impossible. Sure, without prayer, you may keep it together a little bit, but I desire a patience that lasts. Everyone tends to struggle with different aspects of patience, but no matter what type of patience you are struggling with, you cannot be patient in your own strength. So, my practical solution is to pray, and don’t beat yourself up when you lose it, but try to do better than you have done yesterday, which may sound cliché, but that is the very best way to work towards improving in this area of your life. If you mess up, pray and focus on improving. 

Character Qualities of a Christian- Purity

            Impurity or sexual immorality is an ENORMOUS problem that infests our society. Is it possible to remain pure in such a fallen world as this? What does purity look like? How can purity be achieved? What does the Bible say about purity? I am going to try to find answers to these four questions in this article, but first one concept must be understood. Purity is one of the most important qualities for a Christian to have, yet often it is the one that is the biggest problem. Before I get too deep into this article, take a quick look at 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8. This is about as direct of a command as you can have. Verse 8 says, “Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God…” So basically, sexual immorality is you trading God and your purity for earthly pleasure.

            

            The fourth question that I asked was “What does the Bible say about purity?” The actual word “purity” is only used seven times in the Bible (NKJV), but the word “pure” is used over one hundred times. First, look at 1 Timothy 4:12, which says, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, [and] in purity.” Next, look at 1 Corinthians 6:18, which simply starts off, “Flee sexual immorality…” If 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 wasn’t clear, this is. Turn a few pages later in 1 Corinthians to chapter ten, verse eight, which says, “Nor let us commit sexual immorality…” I think we have the answer to the question… RUN!

            

           The next question that I want to find an answer to is whether or not it is possible to remain pure in such a fallen world as this. Before I give my opinion on that, I want to first say that it is very difficult to remain pure with the amount of sexual sin there is in the world today, but it is possible. This doesn’t belittle struggles that women have with sexual sin, but it does tend to be harder for men than women. Struggling with what we see is a great struggle for men, and it’s mostly a matter of not following Matthew 5:28 and Job 31:1.

           

           Now, with Johnny Raincloud out of the way, I’m going to move on to the question of “What does purity look like?” Purity is normally a battle in relationships with members of the opposite sex. So, let me base my answer off of 1 Timothy 5:2 (see verse one for context). We are supposed to treat other women who are around our age as sisters and women that are several years older than us as mothers and for guys it’s the same thing but like brothers and fathers. Until you are married, treat the person that you’re dating or courting like a brother or sister. That sets a high but achievable standard for purity in our relationships and what we see.

            

           Finally, we get to the last question, “How can purity be achieved?” Maybe you’ve already “blown it” so to speak, but really you haven’t. Your battle for purity is an ongoing thing, and if you have “blown it”, your battle starts again now. You haven’t lost, you’ve maybe just been dormant. Perhaps you’ve been successful in your battle for purity, and if that’s the case, awesome, but you haven’t won, you’ll fight until you die. The answer to this question was more or less answered in the previous paragraph. We achieve it by following the standard that has been set in 1 Timothy 5:2.

            

           Before I end this article I want to include four “P’s” that have helped me a lot. The first “p” is purity, which is one of the many things that we should be striving for, but it is also possibly the hardest. The second “p” is promise. Make a commitment to give God your best, which includes a pure body. The third “p” is power. This one means that we cannot accomplish things in our own strength. We have to ask God for help with our problems, which ushers in the third “p”; prayer. Prayer is one of the most important, if not the most important, part of a Christian’s life. So remember those, and above all, pray for strength.

       Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, [and] younger women as sisters, with all purity… ~ 1 Timothy 5:2

       Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, [and] in purity ~ 1 Timothy 4:12

Character Qualities of a Christian: Kindness

           What happened to kindness in today’s culture? Maybe a better question for today’s culture is, “What is kindness?” If we look to the Bible, we see God’s kindness defined in several ways. God’s love is everlasting (Isaiah 54:8), His kindness is merciful, meaning that we don’t deserve it (Psalm 117:2, 119:76, Titus 3:4), His kindness is great (Joel 2:13), God demonstrated His kindness by sending Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:7), He also showed his kindness through his deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (1 Samuel 15:6), God’s power is marvelous (Psalm 31:21), and last but not least, God’s kindness is abundant (Nehemiah 9:17).

           

           Kindness is a difficult quality to have and keep, but it is attainable. No one’s kindness can be as perfect, as forgiving, and as abundant as God’s kindness. I looked up the difference between kindness and love, and the difference is that love tends to be a feeling, while kindness tends to be an action. So God’s love for us is his feelings toward us, and his kindness toward us is the miracles (small or large) that God does for us. To put this concept in a more concrete form, take the Exodus, for example. God loved his nation, the Israelites, so He was kind to them by delivering them out of Egypt. Kindness usually flows out of a heart full of love. If I am very angry at someone, I am not likely to go and clean their car for them or give them a present. Use this equation: Love + Action = Kindness.

            

           So all of this is like a jumbled dinner where none of the components seem to go together, but it is all headed toward a general point. You have God’s perfect kindness at the top, and our imperfect kindness on the bottom, and we have to climb the rope. We can never and will never (until we have our glorified bodies) reach the top. Everybody may be different places on the rope. You may be an overly kind person who enjoys showering people with gifts and words of encouragement or you could be an Ebenezer Scrooge before his change, but most of us are somewhere in between those two.

            

           Here comes the practical part. How do we climb the rope? Well, first of all, I think that as I work on climbing, I tend to slide back down a little bit. Many times, it feels like the “one step forward and two steps backward” feeling, where I’m not really gaining ground, but if you are praying for strength and going out of your way to be kind, you will find yourself steadily moving up the rope. I think the main aspect of kindness that I struggle with is letting people have their way and not forcing my opinion or idea on them. In order to improve in kindness, we need to be purposefully going out of our way to be kind to someone, and that can be anything from a gift to a word of encouragement. Let the other person have their way. Go out for lunch where they want to. In Matthew 5, Jesus says to love your enemies, and as I previously mentioned, kindness flows out of love. In order to show kindness to someone, you almost always have to start by loving them.

            

           So after throwing all of that at you and calling it “practical”, I just want to throw out another question, “Why should we be kind to anyone?” It is certainly a valid question, and the answer is simple, “God changed us by pouring out undeserved kindness on us.”¹ That’s it; God modeled kindness to us so that we would be able to show kindness to others. If we think about what God did for us, I think we can find a way to be kind to others, no matter what. God’s kindness to us should inspire us to climb the rope.

            

           Before wrapping up this article, I should go back and attempt to answer the question that I asked to start the article. The question was, “What happened to kindness in today’s culture?” Kindness has not disappeared, but the amount of it in the world has lessened. I think that part of the reason for its lessening can be credited to the fact that climbing the rope, as I call it, is a grueling process, and many don’t want to work for the prize at the end. So the question is, are you going to strive to climb the rope as I am. I mess up a lot, and so will you, but most of us have nowhere to go but up. Climb the rope.

¹ J.D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power That Made Christianity Revolutionary (2011), pg. 115

Character Qualities of a Christian: Generosity

           This is an issue that is difficult to find an answer to. Many people have a hard time deciding how much money to tithe or give to charity or anything else. The popular thing currently is the eradication of poverty, which is a fine goal, but is it really going to happen. You may feel guilty because you eat three meals a day combined with four or five snacks and there are children in India who survive on three grains of rice a day. The Dollar-a-Drink movement that was started several years ago was a movement to get people to take the dollars they would use on a soft drink, get water instead, and donate the money to the Dollar-a-Drink foundation. That movement has gone one to donate several hundred thousand dollars towards digging wells for children in Africa, and that is great!

            

           So the question is, “What should we do with the money and resources that God has blessed us with?” Well, first of all, everyone has been given different amounts of financial versatility. Matthew 6:19-34 talks a good deal about wealth and possessions, but once again it leaves it in a sort of “viewer’s discretion”. It gives general guidelines and advice, but it doesn’t give an absolute “thus sayeth the LORD” type of command, which makes it so that you have to decide what you are going to do.

            

           You have two things that are commands to do with your money: 1. Tithe ten-percent of it and 2. Take the tithing money out first. Some Christians outline their budget and then whatever is left they tithe (which usually is not much). Another thing that Christian’s sometimes do is say, “Well, I’ve tithed, so the rest is for me!” This attitude is wrong, because God gave you the resources that you have in order to bring glory to Himself. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” I think that this applies to how you spend your money, too. This doesn’t mean that you can’t buy a nice television or eat good food, but be a good steward of the possessions that God has given you.

           

           Something that I have been thinking about recently is the fact that no matter how many orphans in Africa we feed, they will still be hungry tomorrow. Before I continue, I would like to make it very clear that giving money for foundations like Project Saturate, Dollar-a-Drink, and World Vision is a great thing and a very good use of your money. However, these impoverished people need something greater, something that satisfies forever: the bread of life (John 6:35). If we do not communicate the gospel clearly to these children, we are not really helping them.

            

           Another mistake that some people make is thinking that the only thing you should do with your money is give it away to the poor. Some people can really take this to the extreme and live a Spartan lifestyle. You can sit down at the table and think one of two things about the large dinner that you are about to consume. 1. This is more than some children around the world eat in a week, or 2. Thank you, God, for providing me with bountiful resources that I may enjoy pleasures you have given to me and that you have enabled me to give my money to others. Which attitude will you choose?

Character Qualities of a Christian: Integrity

           In today’s culture, the word “integrity” is not used much. Integrity is a rather complex word that means trustworthy, honest, or accountable. The lack of integrity is immense in the world today, with parents that don’t know where or what their child is doing, because that child lacks integrity. They haven’t been accountable and have not let their parents know where they are. Another possible meaning of integrity is diligence; when someone completes a job completely, without the smallest hint of cutting corners.

            

           The word “integrity” is used twenty-four times in the New King James Version of the Bible. I’m just going to center in on a few of these passages. First, you read throughout Job that he was blameless and upright and then, after he suffered, he held to his integrity (Job 2:3). Second, there is Noah, who in Genesis 6:9, where he is called “perfect”, which is also translated as having integrity or blameless. Then, you see in 1 Kings 9:4, God is talking to Solomon, and He refers to David having integrity of heart and being upright. In Titus 2:7, Paul is outlining the qualities of a sound church, and he says to show integrity.

            

           Proverbs has several things to say about integrity, and it is normally contrasted or used as an antonym to the word “perverse”. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” Children tend to observe their surroundings, including the people around him, and they tend to act like those around them. Thus, if their parents are walking in integrity, the children will tend to act the same (no guarantees, though).

            

           Proverbs 19:1 and 28:6 say basically the same thing; that the poor who walks in his integrity is better than the perverse who does what he wants, even if he is rich. I think that you don’t necessarily have to look at this verse in monetary terms exactly, but look at it like this: walking in integrity can cost you to lose your job, girlfriend, perfect GPA, or other tangible things. If you lose those because of walking in integrity, you more than likely did not need those things. If your only shot on a test is to cheat, but you don’t and get a C on your test, it will be worth it to know that you gave it your best shot and you did not cheat.

            

           Throughout this article, I have used the phrase “walking in integrity”, and I want to quickly define that. Walking in integrity means that people can trust you to do anything and that you will go above and beyond their expectations and demands, and at any time on any day, someone can ask you what you’re doing, and you respond with the truth and with a clear conscience. I will not lie, walking in integrity is extremely hard; possibly one of the hardest things you will have to learn. Now, that being said, there are benefits, which include: accountability, people that trust you, a good reputation, and a clean conscience. In conclusion, just remember this: habitual honesty – integrity – must be the goal in all our dealings¹.

^1. R. Kent Hughes Disciplines of a Godly Man, 10^th edition (2006), Published by Crossway Books

Character Qualities of a Christian

In my next several blog articles, I hope to gain a better idea of what a Christian should look like and what character qualities he or she should have. We can never achieve perfection, which can seem kind of disappointing and make our Christian walk look pointless, but in fact the benefit of our imperfection is that we always have room to grow. The following list is a list of qualities that I’m going to attempt to write specific articles on, and a few more may come up later on.

- Integrity

- Generosity

- Kindness

- Purity

- Patience

- Humility

- Self-Control

- Thankfulness

- Joy

- Faith

            These ten things are essential in a Christian’s life, and they should be considered in all aspects of life, whether it be relationships, work, school, or anything else. They also present a challenge to change. I can fairly confidently say that nobody on this planet has perfected all of these things all of the time. If I may be so bold as to add that we all can work on these things, no matter what your circumstances are.