The Way of Christian Character: The Christian Way, #5

PREFACE

This book, "The Way of Christian Character," is the fifth in the Christian Way Series. The titles of the books in this series are:

The Way Of Life

The Way Of Obedience

The Way Of Discipleship

The Way Of Sanctification

The Way Of Christian Character

The Way Of Spiritual Power

The Way Of Christian Service

The Way Of Spiritual Warfare

The Way Of Suffering For Christ

The Way Of Victorious Praying

The Way Of Overcomers

The Way Of Spiritual Encouragement

The Way Of Loving The Lord

Christian character is all-important. The Lord Jesus wants all His disciples to be like Him in their character. He has put the Holy Spirit in each believer to work that character out. Only those whose character conforms in every way to that of the Lord Jesus can be said to be truly entirely sanctified.

This book is about the character of Christ in the life of the Christian. We send it out with prayer that the Almighty Father should use it to work out the character of His begotten Son in His adopted sons.

Zacharias Tanee Fomum,

B.P. 6090, Yaounde

CAMEROON.

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CHRISTIAN CHARACTER

The Lord is deeply concerned about character. It is His primary purpose that those who know Him should be like Him in the content of their character. It is in this sense that we are told of the first apostles that,

He appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons (Mark 3: 14-15).

They were appointed first to be with Him so that, in being with Him, they might become like Him in character and, only secondarily, to be sent out to preach and cast out demons. It can be rightly said that only those who have been with Him and, therefore, put Him on, can be sent out by Him to minister in His name. All who have not been with Him and have, therefore, not put on His character, are excluded from serving Him. The first call of the Lord is that people may come to Him and be changed to be like Him. Ministry is a secondary issue. It is in this wise that the apostle Paul wrote,

My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you! (Galatians 4:19).

Christ formed in the believer = Christian Character.

If a person’s life does not resemble that of the Lord Jesus, his service for Him will not mean much. There are many who talk about the Lord today and even attempt to serve Him, but their character speaks against what their lips proclaim. It was said of one preacher that he was as evangelistic as an angel but twice as wicked as the devil. This is most tragic.

There is the gospel that is preached by the lips, but there is another gospel that is preached by character - by life. It is the purpose of God that the two gospels should become the one Gospel - a presentation of the Lord of glory. Without this gospel preached by word and life, we shall have a hard time in convincing a watching world of the reality of Christ. The world is tired of spoken Christianity that is not backed by life. The truth is that the lives of many believers speak very loudly against the Gospel. Many have looked into the lives of many believers to see discipline, love, tenderness, firmness, etc, which are characteristics of Christ, but have failed to see these traits.

There has been an emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit today in the Churches and even in the world and, to some extent, this is but right, seeing that His gifts were laid aside for too many years. However, let us be aware that gifts are not graces. Balaam continued to prophesy even on the way of disobedience. Samson continued to manifest unusual physical power while manifesting unusual moral powerlessness. Spiritual gifts do not necessarily mean that the person exercising the gifts is spiritual or holy. The Lord warned us when He said,

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘l never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers’ (Matthew 7:22-23).

It is obvious that Christian character is more important than spiritual gifts. However, no one should understand us as saying that spiritual gifts are not to be greatly desired. They have their place in the life and ministry of the believer and the Church, but for sustained ministry before God, both now and in the future, it is character - life, that counts more.

It is sad that it seems quite acceptable in Christian circles that a believer should be undisciplined, self-willed, proud, touchy, dirty, talkative and critical, and yet not be considered sinful, provided he does not commit fornication in action, steal, murder physically, etc. So we have a whole list of sins (the character traits of the devil) that believers commit with a good conscience, while claiming to be holy and filled with the Holy Spirit and while maintaining a spirit of high censorship on other believers who are equally as sinful, except that their sins fall into the class of forbidden sins.

This message is a heart’s cry that all of us who name the name of the Lord should depart not only from the deeds of darkness, but also from those sins that seem to be acceptable to others but which the Lord hates. May no believer rest until he has fully and wholly put on the character of Christ.

I do not write as one who is already perfect, yet I believe that I have seen the problem and found the answer in the Lord Jesus and, like Paul of old, I am pressing on relentlessly for the mark of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. To this purpose - pressing on to maturity in Christ - I invite all who love the Lord Jesus.

MARKS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE DEVIL

(the character of the unbeliever at its worst. this is acquired by destroying all that was received from the creator and the good traits received from ancestry)

A) LACK OF SWEETNESS. LACK OF TENDERNESS. MANIFESTATIONS OF A BITTER AND FRUSTRATED PERSONALITY

An unforgiving spirit

Impatience

Irritability

Being easily upset

Anger

Wrath

Harshness

Bitterness

Callousness (no deep feelings for suffering people. Pitilessness)

Hardness of heart

Rejoicing at evil

Jealousy

Worry

Inconsiderateness

Mercilessness

Unkindness

Being easily offended

Sowing discord

Revengefulness

Rudeness

Exposing the faults of others.

B) INSECURITY AND SELF-CENTREDNESS. EXTREME EXTROVERSION OR INTROVERSION

Self-pity

Indifference

Selfishness

Withdrawn personality

Uninvolvedness

Passive attitude

Lovelessness

Joylessness

Self-induced misery

Unfriendliness at a deep level

Inferiority complex

Negative attitude (a capacity to see all as going wrong)

Coldness

Weakness.

Pride

Arrogance

Conceit

Haughtiness

Spitefulness

Fastidiousness (being difficult to please)

Self-sufficiency

Stubbornness

Ingratitude

Self-advertisement

Love of praise

Superiority complex

Slyness

Jealousy

Being difficult to approach

Being distant

Hardly accepting faults

Being difficult to correct

Self-justification

Prejudice

Narrow-mindedness

Disrespectfulness

Waiting for others to approach one

Hiding personal faults

Pretentiousness

A critical spirit

Often feeling ill at ease.

C) INDISCIPLINE AND LACK OF SELF-CONTROL.

Indiscipline

Unfaithfulness

Instability

Being easily moved and easily changeable

Impulsiveness (acting on the spur of the moment)

Superficiality (lacking deep thought)

Talkativeness

Laziness

Rashness

Cowardice

Foolishness

Fearfulness

Indulgence

Extravagance

Lying

Deliberately presenting false impressions of self or others

Untidiness

Being disorganized

Dirtiness

Being easily discouraged

Uncontrolled speech

Divulging of secrets.

NATURAL CHARACTER (HOW ACQUIRED)

AT NATURAL BIRTH

At natural birth, the one born receives character traits from God as Creator and from his ancestry. The traits received from God as Creator are all good and those received from ancestry are a mixture of good and bad. Somehow each child bears some traits that come from the type of ancestors that the child had. These are not learnt. They are just there. For example, it has been clearly shown that children behave like their parents in some ways, even if these parents died on the day the child was born.

RECEIVED NATURAL CHARACTER IN THE CRUCIBLE OF LIFE

What is received from God as Creator and what is received from ancestry constitute the basic elements of the person’s natural character. As the child grows, the traits received at birth will develop. The direction of their development will depend upon the circumstances of life that the person experiences, from the moment of birth, as the person grows up, and how that person reacts in each circumstance. So, received natural character will be modified by:-

Circumstances

People

Things that one encounters along life’s way.

Take, for example, someone may live in a greedy, competitive society. This will influence him to some extent in the direction of greed and competition. He may face criticisms and failure that create self-doubt and withdrawal into self. He may feel ignored so much so that he has to advertise himself, etc. He may live with thoughtful people and that may help him to be thoughtful. He may be taught to be grateful and so he will acquire that trait, and so it goes.

Depending on the circumstances, people and things that come a person’s way and the way he reacts to them, his final adult character may be pleasing or distasteful. Each person’s natural character is then the product of what he received and the choices he made. These things can be summed up as follows:-

At natural birth. Traits of character received from God as Creator and from ancestry

Fully developed natural character being the sum of what has remained of that which was inherited and that which was destroyed or built in response to the circumstances of life, people and things

Each situation presents a person with a choice, for example:-

The choice to smile or to frown.

The choice to be warm or cold.

The choice to be tender or hard.

The choice to exalt or to press down.

The choice to force oneself out or to force oneself in.

The choice to greet or to wait to be greeted.

The choice to rejoice or to be sad or to be indifferent.

At each point of choice there is the way of least resistance and the more difficult way. Character is built by human choices and confirmed by whether the person chooses the way of least resistance or the more difficult way. Each person is, to a large extent, the product of his choices.

THE DANGERS OF NATURAL CHARACTER

Let me, first of all, say that the world is a far better place to live in because of the many unbelievers in it with many traits of character that are received from God as Creator. For example, there are tender, kind, generous, humble, etc, unbelievers. They received these traits from the Creator and have allowed them to blossom with time.

God in Christ summed up all that was in the old creation (received from God as Creator) and sentenced it to death on the cross in one decisive act. In so doing, God revealed His evaluation of all that is of the old creation, all that is natural.

God’s verdict on the old creation with its good and bad elements is, Away with it. God has decided that all that is of the old creation cannot serve Him along with what is received from Him at the beginning of the New Life.

Because God has only one place for the old creation (the cross), all the elements of character that are received from Him as Creator and not as Father in the Lord Jesus, must be gotten rid off.

It is alright for an unbeliever to function in God’s world by using natural character traits. However, when the unbeliever becomes a believer, he is called upon to reject these traits, abandon them to the cross and, then, through resurrection, put on Christ.

Good natural character traits that have been through death and then resurrection can be used by the believer to serve the Lord.

The reason why a believer cannot use his natural abilities to serve God and satisfy the Lord is that such a person is of necessity unstable. Take natural love for example. A person with such a love will love all those who please him. The number of people in such a person’s circle may be large, yet he will love them. However, when faced with an enemy, what will happen to this capacity to love? It will betray itself. It will fail. Unbelievers cannot love their enemies. God’s twice born children can. The Lord Jesus said,

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (Matthew 5 43-46).

Take another example of a person who is naturally joyful. Everything will go well until he is stricken with great sorrow and then it will be found that, because his joy was rooted in nature, it could not stand in circumstances that needed the supernatural joy of the Lord. Take another person who is