Category: Virtue: Ancient Wisdom on Becoming Excellent People

How do we develop excellent traits that reflect the glory of God and show forth the wonder and nobility of human beings, traits like wisdom, justice, courage, and self-control?

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Becoming a People Fit for Fellowship with the Triune God

The Life We’ve Always Wanted

What if we could live in fellowship with God so deeply satisfying that every other desire, need, and hurt receded into the background?

I recently read the story of Brian “Head” Welch, the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Korn. He had everything—fame, money, and every indulgence that success could buy. Then, in 2005, he left it all behind. Why? Because he found something better: Christ. That is what true fellowship with God can do. It gives us something richer than everything else combined.

Jesus called this “eternal life.” He said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). According to Jesus, real life consists in communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is life lived in fellowship with God Himself.

We Need to Change to Experience It

Eternal life is a gift of grace that we do not deserve (Rom. 6:23). It is freely available to all—no matter where we have been or what we have done. God stands ready to receive us. His character does not change. But we must change if we are to enjoy His life.

What kind of people must we become in order to live this life of fellowship? Three characteristics mark those who are growing into it:

  • God awareness
  • God-rooted confidence
  • Godward affection

These qualities are not something we produce by sheer effort. The good news is that all who have received God’s gift of life are “being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). This is the Spirit’s ongoing work.

Yet we are not passive in it. Scripture calls us to lean into what God is already doing: “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12–13). Paul holds together the mystery of divine and human agency in spiritual transformation with perfect balance.

Let us consider these three characteristics more closely and how we can participate in God’s transforming work that conforms us to Christ.

Continue reading “Becoming a People Fit for Fellowship with the Triune God”

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The Ancient Path of Moral Excellence (The Four Cardinal Virtues)

Long before Jesus came, people were already asking what it meant to live well. The ancient philosophers said that a good life isn’t just about rules or avoiding bad behavior. It’s about becoming the kind of person who naturally chooses what is good. They spoke of four key habits—prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance—that together form what they called the “cardinal virtues,” the path of moral excellence.

Centuries later, Christian theologians saw that this ancient insight lined up beautifully with the life of Jesus. He didn’t just teach the right way—He lived it perfectly. Jesus saw the truth clearly (prudence), lived for the good of others (justice), endured suffering for the sake of love (fortitude), and remained total self-control and peace (temperance). The virtues, then, aren’t a rival to Jesus’ way—they describe His character and show what His Spirit forms in us as we follow Him.

Josef Pieper, a twentieth-century Christian philosopher, brought this old wisdom to life again in his short book The Four Cardinal Virtues. He called it “the wisdom of the ancients” that had “inexhaustible contemporaneity,” a perpetual relevance (xii). Let’s walk the path together.

Continue reading “The Ancient Path of Moral Excellence (The Four Cardinal Virtues)”

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From Cicero to Ambrose: The Call to Serve the Common Good

Saint Ambrose of Milan (340–397) was a military governor turned Christian bishop. Concerned about the conduct of his priests, he wrote On the Duties of the Clergy to encourage them to live virtuously. In doing so, he borrowed the structure, many arguments, and even illustrations from Cicero’s On Duties (read about it here).

Cicero and Ambrose build their works in the same way: they begin with excellent character, then discuss what is useful, and finally ask what happens when the two collide. Their conclusion is simple—usefulness without character is worthless.

Both drive the point home with memorable words. Ambrose says, “Let not, therefore, expediency get the better of virtue, but virtue of expediency” (3.6.37). Cicero echoes the same truth: “When men detach the useful from the honourable, they undermine the very foundations of nature” (On Obligations, 119). In other words, being the best human you can be is the most important thing.

And what does this look like in practice?

Pursuing Justice
Both authors insist that virtue must be active. A virtuous person does not retreat into seclusion but seeks justice for the community. Ambrose says, “We must think it a far more noble thing to labour for our country than to pass a quiet life at ease” (3.3.23). Cicero agrees: “”you should embark on activities which are of course important and highly useful, but are in addition extremely taxing, full of toils and dangers which threaten both life and the many strands that compose it” (24). Virtue acts; it does not hide. Continue reading “From Cicero to Ambrose: The Call to Serve the Common Good”

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How to Live a Life of Communion with God

Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is not merely living forever. It’s a quality of life—a life lived in fellowship with the triune God. It’s an entrance into the love shared by the Father and the Son from all eternity.

This life is a gift. Whoever believes in Jesus receives the gift of knowing God—of enjoying fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Spirit.

The challenge is that we are not naturally fit to enjoy this relationship. We are not the kind of people who easily enter into an experience of the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the good news is that if we have received this gift, God is already at work making us into the kind of people who can. He is shaping us to enjoy communion with Him—and with all those who share in that life (the church).

Our calling is to lean into this work. We are not passive. As Peter wrote, “Make every effort to add to your faith . . . virtue” (2 Peter 1:5). That virtue—those excellent qualities—are what make communion with God possible and enjoyable.

How do we grow in this? The heart of it is simple: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you” (John 15:4). Stay connected to Jesus. There’s more to do, but this is the center.

How does that connection work itself out in daily life? That’s what we’ll explore below.

You Need Time
All relationships take time. Aristotle once said that friendship requires eating a pound of salt together. Not all at once, of course—but slowly, over many meals. Time together builds friendship.

So it is with God. Communion with Him takes time. This is why we set apart time for fellowship with God—especially through His Word and prayer.

But how we spend that time matters. Continue reading “How to Live a Life of Communion with God”

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Loving God the Most: Lovers of God Rather Than Lovers of Pleasures

There are so many good things to enjoy in this life that we can readily make them the focus of our lives: food, sex, alcohol, movies, etc. These pleasures are so powerful that Jesus warned that “life’s worries, riches and pleasures” are like weeds and thorns that choke the good plant of the Word of God in our lives (Luke 8:14). We easily become “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4).

Pleasures easily become our masters. Paul describes the life before Christ as one in which we were “deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures” (Tit. 3:3). People become slaves to pleasures. They sacrifice their health, their relationship with God, their relationship with people, and their fortunes to these things.

Because of the power of these pleasures, some people make the opposite error. They get focused on rules prohibiting these pleasures. The problem is that this often produces a focus on these pleasures just as intense. Religion becomes all about avoiding these things rather than a change of the heart.

In addition, God created these pleasures to be enjoyed. Enjoying the good things of this world is not just an option. It is a commandment. The Apostle Paul wrote that these are things “God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (2 Tim. 4:3b–5).

How do we learn to receive these pleasures in a good way that doesn’t make us lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God? How do we avoid becoming enslaved by them? Continue reading “Loving God the Most: Lovers of God Rather Than Lovers of Pleasures”

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