What the Bible says about Godly Character, Evidence of
(From Forerunner Commentary)
All members of God's church have inherited a Family name far more valuable than any surname. We have an awesome responsibility to uphold and honor the nobility and dignity of the name of God. The reputation we create for our church, our businesses, or our institutions is the legacy we pass on to our brothers and sisters and our children.
David F. Maas
What's in a Name Anyway?Related Topics: Character | Character, God's | Conduct | God's Family Name, Honoring | God's Name | God's Name, Hallowing | God's Name, Honoring | Godly Character | Godly Character, Evidence of | Honoring God | Honoring God's Family Name | Honoring God's Name | Name | Name of God, Honoring | Name of God, Taking in Vain | Name, Value of | Reputation
A good reputation, based upon what a person is in his dealings with others, is certainly of greater worth in God's eyes than wealth.
John W. Ritenbaugh
How to Know We Love ChristRelated Topics: Character | Character, God's | Conduct | Godly Character | Godly Character, Evidence of | Name | Name, Value of | Reputation
It is not without validity that most of our impressions or beliefs about our family, close friends, and acquaintances automatically involve knowledge about their character as a part of their reputation. Obviously, our interactions give us insight to these people's characters and reputations, whether our perceptions are true or false. Those who know us best will see any growth of character or lack of it. Even so, some can have blind spots in relation to a particular person (for instance, a mother may ignore her son's flaws), or the person may have a talent for concealing their shortcomings, even from those closest to them.
We see a positive side of this in Acts 6:1-3, where the apostles tell the church to choose seven men to become deacons. One of the criteria was that these men were to be "of good reputation," which translates from the Greek word martureo, meaning "to be a witness, that is, to testify (literally or figuratively)." The KJV also renders martureo as "give [evidence]," "bear record," "obtain a good honest report," "be well reported of."
These men were to show evidence of God's Spirit and wisdom in their lives, a combination of a good name as well as growth in character. It is interesting that, because they knew them best, the people were to select these men according to their character.
Staff
Our Reputation, Our CharacterRelated Topics: Blindspots | Character | Character, God's | Deacons | God's Character | God's Holy Spirit | God's Holy Spirit, Evidence of | Godlike Characteristics | Godly Character | Godly Character, Evidence of | Name, Value of | Reputation | Spiritual Blindspots | Spiritual Character | Spiritual Wisdom | Wisdom, Godly | Wisdom, Spiritual | Witness | Witness, Quality of
Protestants hang on this verse because on its face it seems to say that Christ did all the work for us—that we are made righteous, sanctified, and redeemed by accepting His sacrifice for us, and we need do no more.
Upon closer study, though, this verse says that Jesus is our example in these matters; He embodies these virtues. Just as He is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), He is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. If we walk as He walked, we will be wise, righteous, holy, and saved! As the whole context shows, God will amaze and shame the world by taking the foolish, weak, and base, and creating them into children like His Son (cf. Luke 10:21). Even as nothing just appears as a finished product, so His children will go through a process of development, and this process follows the same one that Jesus Christ experienced in His life (John 8:12; I Corinthians 11:1; I John 2:6; etc.).
This is where the Protestant gospel fails. It proclaims "by grace you have been saved through faith" alone (a word not found in Ephesians 2:8, yet added by Martin Luther), and discounts works entirely as a vehicle for building character because, in their view, we are already righteous and holy through Christ. True, we are not saved by works (verse 9), but Paul emphatically asserts that God is creating us in Christ for good works (verse 10). James adds that works exhibit and stimulate faith (James 2:18, 22, 24, 26). Works, then, are a tool to build as well as a product of godly character.
The gospel, then, is more than an announcement of salvation to mankind. It is a roadmap that teaches us what we must do to be saved—not just justified by Christ's sacrifice, but also born into the Kingdom of God! Between justification and glorification is sanctification, the process of becoming holy and righteous as He is, and the gospel explains how that is accomplished. Though that process does not save us, we will not be saved without it!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The True Gospel (Part 2)
The apostle presents Christian living as a two-pronged endeavor that we can perhaps simplify or summarize even more. The first is doing good works: visiting orphans and widows in their trouble. The second prong is to become holy or build righteous character in ourselves in cooperation with God.
We could also divide it into the practical and the spiritual sides of life. Obviously, when a person does good works, it is a practical application of what he has learned and put on as spiritual character.
Another way to look at it is to say that James divides it into the outward and the inward. Part of Christian living goes on inside an individual, and something—a work, an action—comes out of him as a result.
However we want to name this two-pronged approach, we must realize that neither of these prongs is sufficient alone, which is why James presents them together. It is "pure and undefiled religion" to have an inward and an outward aspect or a practical and a spiritual aspect.
The apostle John agrees with James in I John 3:16-19. Pure religion requires both of these elements:
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
He says that, if we do not manifest God's love by giving, helping, and caring for others, then we have not fulfilled anything. We cannot be sure that the love of God is actually in us if it is not coming out in some sort of physical work that we do, some act of love.
In this church's teaching, we tend to stress only one of these prongs. It is not that we do not talk about the other, but we tend to stress the inward, the spiritual, the holy, the righteous character part—the second prong that James shows in James 1:27. There is good, sound, solid, biblical reason for this. Basically, it is that the spiritual aspect is the more important of the two.
The inward, the spiritual, the holy, the righteous-character part of Christian living is the foundation—the wellspring, the fertile soil—out of which good works grow. One could go so far as to say that effective and truly good works cannot be done without godly character or a right relationship with God.
This means that we must have godly character before we can even begin to do good works properly! Without godliness, good works are simply common and rather empty, humanistic philanthropy.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
"If I Have Not Charity"Related Topics: | Building a Relationship with God | Building Character | Character of Our Conduct | Character of Our Thoughts | Charity | Christian Charity | Godly Character | Godly Character, Evidence of | If I Have Not Charity | Intimate Relationship with God | Keeping Ourselves Unspotted from the World | Pure and Undefiled Religion | Self Sacrifice | Unspotted from the World | Visiting in Mercy | Visiting the Sick
The godly are those who do righteous deeds, and the ungodly, then, are those who commit unlawful deeds.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Sixteen)Related Topics: Godlike Characteristics | Godliness | Godly Behavior | Godly Character | Godly Character, Evidence of | Lawlessness | Ungodliness | Ungodly Behavior | Ungodly Living | Unholy