Tag: Justice

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The Truly Excellent Life: Four Key Characteristics

In one of my graduate classes, we were given time to share how God had worked in our lives. One pastor shared how he lived in college. He was brilliant—but he was a jerk. He used his sharp intellect to tear people down. Other people’s feelings weren’t even on his radar.

This is the exact opposite of moral excellence. You can have intellectual excellence, but without moral excellence, you are not living an excellent life.

The Morally Excellent Faith
The Apostle Peter called the scattered believers of the first century to pursue exactly this sort of life. He said, you believe. That’s good. Now put as much effort as you can into making your life a morally excellent one (1 Pet. 1:5).

The word he used was aretas, or virtue. This word could refer to excellence of any kind, but when applied to human beings it referred especially to living a life of moral excellence.

Peter did not leave the meaning of this moral excellence to their imagination. He explained what this life looks like in concrete terms. He said that virtue must be wise, that wisdom must be self-controlled, that self-control must persevere, that perseverance must be centered on God, that this God-centeredness must produce brotherly love, and that brotherly love must overflow into love for everyone we meet (see 2 Pet. 1:5–7).

The word Peter used for “add” is especially rich. It is derived from the Greek theater and refers to organizing the parts of a chorus so that they sound beautiful together. It can also mean “supply” or “intentionally organize” these specific components. The point is that none of these virtues stands alone. They are meant to work together.

Think about it. If someone is self-controlled but does not persevere or keep going, what good is it? If someone is disciplined but does not care for God or for people, what good is that kind of discipline? Continue reading “The Truly Excellent Life: Four Key Characteristics”

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The Cardinal Virtues for the Christian Life, Part 3: Practical Wisdom

If anyone was community-minded in our nation’s history, it was Martin Luther King, Jr. He rightly sought the correction of the many injustices inflicted upon African-Americans. But his vision was larger than that. He wanted a better community for everyone. As he said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of George the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” (The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., 260). He called this vision the “beloved community.”

His concern for justice was not limited to African-Americans alone. He understood that injustice degrades not only those who suffer from it but also those who perpetrate it. As he wrote, “We do not seek to remove this unjust system for ourselves alone but for our white brothers as well. The festering sore of segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro” (ibid. 145). If that was the goal, what was required to reach it? He needed a lot of practical wisdom both to counteract injustice and to bring people together.

The Need for Wisdom
Anyone who sincerely seeks the good of the community quickly discovers that good intentions are not enough. We need practical wisdom—wisdom to see both the goal and the right means to achieve it.

That is precisely what the Apostle Paul prayed for the church in Philippi. He knew they had love, a genuine affection for the community. What they needed was wisdom to direct that love well. He wrote:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God (Phil. 1:9–11).

Let’s take this apart. First, Paul wanted them to bear good fruit. That means he wanted them to do and experience genuine good—for themselves, for others, and ultimately for the glory of God. Continue reading “The Cardinal Virtues for the Christian Life, Part 3: Practical Wisdom”

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The Cardinal Virtues for the Christian Life, Part 2: Community-Mindedness (Justice)

At 15, Charles Spurgeon was driven by a snowstorm into a small chapel. There, he heard the good news about Jesus and gave his life to Christ.

By his 19th birthday, he had become a preacher at New Park Street Baptist. Seven years later, the congregation moved to the 5,000-seat Metropolitan Tabernacle. Four years after that, in 1865, he began publishing a monthly magazine that would help thousands process the truth.

Spurgeon connected deeply with God, but he was also a profoundly community-minded man. He believed faith was meant to be public—to shape lives, institutions, and cities.

Community-Mindedness and Moral Excellence
Community-mindedness is the beating heart of virtue. Virtue is not private. There is no season of “working on yourself” first and then developing communal virtue later. The two must grow together. Virtue is communal. Period.

This is really what the ancients meant (and more) when they talked about “justice” as a cardinal virtue. Doing good isn’t just about ourselves. It is about our community. That’s why I’ve described it as community-mindedness. “Justice” can seem too transactional, as if we only have to care about our neighbor when some wrong is committed and needs to be corrected in court. The concept is much broader: thinking of the community all the time.

The Bible reflects this view of moral excellence and virtue. Peter explains that we are to add to our faith virtue, and that this virtue leads us to mutual affection for one another and to a general love that reaches out to all people (2 Peter 1:7). Moral excellence inevitably moves outward.

The Apostle Paul described this same posture in his letter to the Roman church. Addressing differences within the body, he wrote, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1). He then grounded this in a larger principle: “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up” (Rom. 15:2). This is community-mindedness. We do not simply think about what is good for ourselves. We consider what is good for everyone.

This is the pattern Jesus Himself showed. “For Christ did not please Himself . . .” (Rom. 15:3). His life was consistently oriented toward the needs of others, toward the good of the community—not His own comfort or ease.

What does this look like in practice?
What does it actually look like to think and live this way?

Here are a few concrete expressions: Continue reading “The Cardinal Virtues for the Christian Life, Part 2: Community-Mindedness (Justice)”

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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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Cicero: Clear Your Head So You Can Serve the Community

We do not exist for ourselves. We are made to serve the community. This service is not always easy, and it is not always appreciated. Yet we must be willing to bear hardships and toil for the sake of others. As Cicero put it, “justice is the single virtue which is mistress and queen of all virtues” (On Obligations, 93). He lays out this vision in his book On Obligations or On Duties.

The key to understanding our obligations is realizing that we are not isolated individuals. We are created for community and for service:

I have often made the point earlier, but it must be repeated again and again: there is a bond of fellowship which in its widest sense exists between all members of the entire human race, an inner link between those of the same nation, and a still closer connection between those of the same state (107).

We are made for one another. Our destiny is not private. It is to use our resources in service of those around us. As Cicero says, the interest of the individual is bound up with the interest of the community. Continue reading “Cicero: Clear Your Head So You Can Serve the Community”

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