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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Loving God the Most: Working for God Instead of Work as God

One of the greatest blessings that humans can enjoy in this world is to be able to do work that blesses oneself and others and glorifies God. When God made Adam, He did not want him to sit passively in front of a beautiful creation. God wanted him to discover its latent possibilities and do work to bring out those possibilities to show forth the beauty and usefulness of creation.

The Bible’s view of work is positive. The author of Ecclesiastes says that in spite of the effects of the fall on work, “[t]hat each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God” (Eccl. 3:12). In the Proverbs, Solomon commends hard work: “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense” (Proverbs 12:11). Work is such a blessing that even slaves can see themselves as doing something unto God when they are working: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters . . .” (Col. 3:23). Even if you don’t get paid what you deserve, the Lord will ensure that you get a reward for your labor.

On the other side, the Bible condemns those who won’t work. Paul warned the Thessalonians against idleness: “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thess. 4:11–12). He also said, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat'” (2 Thess. 3:10).

So, work is a blessing, and it is a necessity. Every human being is called to work, and there is great delight in work. To be able to raise and prepare food for people is aiding people with their most basic needs. The labor it takes to raise a child is crucial to human flourishing. Discovering ways to do things more efficiently empowers more productivity and frees people for greater labor. Cleaning an office makes it usable and a blessing to those who are a part of it. So, it is with all honest labor. It is a blessing and God-approved.

The Right Way to Work
However, we must labor in the right way. In terms of God, we must all learn to work for Him and not human masters. We should work “as unto the Lord.” We work unto the Lord. Continue reading “Loving God the Most: Working for God Instead of Work as God”

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Loving God the Most: Loving God as God and People as People

When we love God above everything else, it means that we find our ultimate value, acceptance, security, delight, hope, blessing, and joy in Him. If we do this, our quest for these things is at an end. We don’t have to look for them in people.

The love of God has a practical result in human relationships. It enables us to accept people as they are. We can learn to say with the theologian Henri Nouwen, “Only God can give me what I want from another person” (Spiritual Direction, 122).

The lack of the love of God also has a practical result. We look for our ultimate value, acceptance, security, etc. in other people.

What’s wrong with doing that? They can’t provide those things for us. As Nouwen said, “If we do not know we are the beloved sons and daughters of God, we’re going to expect someone in the community to make us feel special and worthy. Ultimately, they cannot” (114). Confusion on this point is a recipe for conflict and frustration. Continue reading “Loving God the Most: Loving God as God and People as People”

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Loving God the Most: Making God Our Emotional Refuge

“Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” – Psalm 62:8

Where do you go with your strong emotions? A lof of times, they just run around in our head. They keep us from important duties, people, and fun. They cause problems with our health, our relationships, and our work.

Emotions need an outlet. We often seek an outlet in other people: withdrawing from them, attacking them, or complaining to them. We often seek outlets in busy-ness, trying to getour mind off of these things or solve them. We sometimes seek an outlet in trying to escape our issues, like endless hours of Netflix or alcohol. We often seek outlets in stres-reducers such as eating, exercise, sleep, planning, and so on.

Sometimes these things help. Sometimes they do not. Sometimes things gets worse. Sometimes our attempt to deal with our emotions hurts the people around us.

The Right Refuge for Our Emtions
The Psalms in the Bible give us a different picture of how to deal with our emotions. What the Psalms teach us is that emotions are not intended to remain on the horizontal plane. They are meant to go vertical. We are meant to resolve them in God.

The Psalms have a word for this. God is our refuge. God is an emotional refuge: “pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8). Continue reading “Loving God the Most: Making God Our Emotional Refuge”

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Loving God the Most: Making Jesus’ Priorities Ours

A classic object lesson of time management involves a jar with sand, pebbles, water, and big rocks. The first part of the lesson is to put in the pebbles, the sand, and the water. Then, you try to put in the big rocks. You can’t. It’s already full. However, if you start with the big rocks, you can then add the pebbles, the sand, and the water. The lesson? Put in your big rocks first.

When it comes to time management, you should always start with your big rocks. For example, if you value your children, you shouldn’t wait to the end of the week to find time for them. You probably won’t. But if you block out time for your kids each week, then you will be more likely to spend time with them. Plus, you’ll find that you get the other stuff done, too. The pebbles, sand, and water will fit in the jar just fine.

Once you understand that principle, you then need to discover what your big rocks are. What are the most important things in your life? Are they on your schedule? That’s how you make sure, as Goethe says, that “[t]hings which matter most” will “never be at the mercy of things which matter least” (cited in Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 146).

The question I want to pose here is this, what big rocks would Jesus want you to put in first? One big part of loving God is making His priorities ours. What priorities does Jesus have that you do not? What would Jesus want to make sure is on your schedule that may not be there? What would He add to your schedule, if He was making your schedule for the week?

Big Rock #1: Telling People About Jesus
I want to suggest two big rocks that you need to put in your schedule first to align your priorities with Jesus’. The first is evangelism. This means getting to know people who do not know Jesus and then telling them about Jesus. You do not love people simply to tell them about Jesus. You love people, and one part of loving them is telling them about Jesus. It’s loving because it’s good to know Jesus. Continue reading “Loving God the Most: Making Jesus’ Priorities Ours”

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5 Reasons to Work Harder on Becoming a Loving Person

Loving people in this world can be hard (see 5 Reasons Why It Is Hard to Love). We see things from our own perspective. Other people see things from theirs. This brings us into conflict with them. This inflicts wounds upon us. Why put in the work of becoming a loving person when it is often so hard to love?

There are plenty of reasons. The Christian faith offers us many motivations and reasons to work on becoming a loving person. In some ways, this is what the Christian faith is all about, helping us become loving people instead of selfish ones.

What are the reasons the Christian faith offers to work on it? The Apostle Paul wrote his famous “love” chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, but I think Romans 12 offers more insight into love, though it is less elegant. I want to look at the motivations that he offers there.

Reason #1: The love of God for us. When Paul tells us that we should love others, he begins with the love and mercy of God. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God . . .” (Romans 12:1). If we have trouble loving, we should not first try harder. We should take a plunge into the infinite ocean of the love of God.

When we consider how little thought we have given to God and how much He has blessed us, it will motivate us to love. If God loved us, we also ought to love one another. God sought us out when we were going astray and didn’t even want to come back. How, then, can we not imitate our heavenly Father and show love?

Reason # 2: We are made for each other. We are not made to exist alone. We are social beings. We are made to work together and live together. When we don’t, we are living contrary to our nature. “So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5).

Paul speaks here of the body of Christ, but the same is true of humans in general. This is recognized more broadly in the Bible, but others have used the same metaphor. The Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius said, “For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away” (Meditations, 2.1). We are made to love. To not love is to act against what we were created to be.

Reason #3: Being a jerk is terrible. This goes back to Romans 1: “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy” (29—31). Living this way is terrible. So, why would we let the world drag us down to this level? If someone wants to be a jerk, they harm themselves. We should not let them harm us by turning us into jerks. We should learn to love, which is excellent and beautiful.

Reason #4: The judgment of God. Christianity does not say that revenge is wrong. It just says that we are not competent or authorized to carry it out. We leave it to God. When we let go of wrongs and learn to love, even when it’s hard, we are not saying that wrong is not wrong. We are saying that we trust God to sort everything out and deal with other people. “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). We can release ourselves to love because we can be confident that God will deal with everything in a satisfying way.

Reason #5: It is effective. Love conquers. That’s why the Apostle Paul said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). When we can respond with love when others don’t, it can shine a light that dispels the darkness. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a great example. He sought to bring whites and blacks together, but he also said that the injustice of the white community was wrong. He used non-violence to protest while not turning away from a relationship with them. The result was a radical transformation of our society. That’s what bold love can do (to use the words of Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III, whose book I highly recommend).

These are the central reasons in the book of Romans for working harder on becoming loving people. I hope that you feel encouraged to work on developing one of the most excellent virtues that you can have. You’re not in it alone, God stands behind you becoming a loving person! He’s for it. He is all in. That’s why He gives us so many reasons to pursue it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it was a blessing. If you liked it, please share or subscribe below. I hope to see you here again soon!

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