5 Character traits Christians Must Pursue

You know Jesus, yet you're regularly frustrated as you try to grow as a Christian.

You have the hope of Christ in you, but you struggle to find the abundant life He promised in John 10:10.

You read Romans 7, and you feel like Paul!

Welcome to ‘the walk.' Human nature versus spiritual nature. Joy. Frustration. Sanctification. It's a process, a lifetime adventure.

What can you do to speed up the sanctification process, to be closer to God, to arrive at the center of His will, where you will find the abundant life He came to give you? While the Christian life cannot be totally compartmentalized – it is first and foremost a relationship! – the characteristics of Christ can be considered and pursued systematically. This story will briefly describe five characteristics that all Christians must pursue (humility, purity, discipline, patience, compassion) without suggesting that these five are conclusive or comprehensive.

Don Whitney, author a book entitled, '10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health' and two books on spiritual disciplines (www.spiritualdisciplines.org ), says that we must pursue the characteristics of Christ in the context of relationship.

“These are aspects of Christ-likeness,” says Whitney, a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City , says. “Christ-likeness should be our ultimate pursuit. Obviously, we're not going to merit salvation by practicing these (characteristics), therefore we must first determine why we're pursuing them. The answer must be ‘for Christ-likeness.' “

Romans 8:29 tells us that God created us “to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

It is HIM we pursue, not merely His actions. And yet, identifying and striving toward the behaviors and attitudes that Christ exhibited will draw us closer to Him. Separating the person from the characteristics, however, could draw us into “almost a backward self-centeredness,” Whitney warns. “If we are constantly asking, ‘Am I (fill in the blank) enough,' who are we fixing our eyes upon? Us. The Bible says to fix our eyes upon Jesus. He is our desire. He is our power to do these things.”

Therefore, let us consider His character.

Humilty

“ Your own ambitions are your biggest distractions from following your life mission. The number one reason people don't find their mission is they are not willing to give up their own plans." - Rick Warren

Ouch! This is a sharp reminder that we must lay down our life in order to pick up Christ's. Do you want to see the ultimate confused, unhappy person? It is a Christian trying to live his or her life and Christ's. They aren't living either very well; they are overwhelmed; they probably wonder what's wrong!

What's wrong is that our human nature says to live for ourselves. When we receive Christ's life we are to die to self! But so often we lay down our life, then pick it up. Lay it down, then pick it up. But Christ knows what is best for us, and if we will lay down our life – and leave it there! -- we will pick up one of purpose and power. Christ has come that we may have abundant life (John 10:10); He has called us to do greater things than He did (John 14:12), and He has called us to serve others (many places, including John 21:17). What privilege and power such a life brings, but it is only possible when we give up our lives, our plans, our purposes.

James 4:10 reads, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” The practical expression of humility means thinking of others first, seeing ourselves as we really are, elevating others, and particularly elevating Jesus Christ.

Actually, being humble is very powerful, and is very empowering of others. It brings respect. It puts us ‘eye-to-eye' with people (and that's the best way to minister to them!) It gives people freedom to dialogue with us, to be ‘real' with us.

And most importantly, being humble opens us to Christ's life-changing (our lives and others) power. It allows it to flow through us!

Why is humility the first characteristic listed here? Consider Whitney's take on it: “I want to contrast humility with pride, which I believe you can argue is the sin God hates most. There is always the tendency toward pride, even by those who are more shy or demure by personality.”

Yet Jesus Christ revealed no pride; consider the description of Him in Philippians 2, which reads in part, “(He) made Himself of no reputation . . . He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Purity

Just as the life of Christ is blocked from flowing through us if we are battling with Him for preeminence, it is polluted if we are not pure.

“The Bible says that the pure in heart are the ones that are going to see God,” Whitney says, referring to the beatitudes, particularly Matthew 5:8. “This is recognizing that our bodies are not our own. We're bought with a price. We don't make ourselves, don't own ourselves. He has all rights to us.”

Paul pleaded with the church at Thessalonica to purify itself (1 Thes. 4:1-8) The Greek word used for purify – Katharismos – is where we get the English word catheter, a device used to drain off anything infectious, i.e., to cleanse and purify.

Personal purity is a matter of getting enough of God! It is a matter of putting the right things into our bodies and minds, and contrastingly keeping the wrong things out.

When we don't ‘get enough of God,' we seek comfort, help, hope and relief in other things. Sometimes those things don't look so bad, but they lead us down a slippery slope. Sometimes the emotional hole in your heart can seem to be satisfied by an illicit sexual experience, a drug, or some other diversion – but you are as empty before as after!

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation,” says Psalm 24:4-5.

Discipline

We cannot purify ourselves without being disciplined. We must make choices -- and act upon those choices – about what will enter our minds and bodies and about what we will think.

Discipline is work. Paul wrote to Timothy “ exercise yourselves toward godliness.”

He told the church at Rome , “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

The perfect will of God is attainable, in part, by discipline, but never apart from it. Whitney says, “Godly people are Godly people because they are spiritually disciplined people. In 24 years of pastoral ministry, I have never known a Godly person who wasn't also a spiritually disciplined person.”

Discipline is first mental: deciding what to do and not to do; deciding what to take in mentally and physically. Many Christians make a strong effort at mental discipline, but ignore their body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In fact, physical discipline (proper exercise and diet) is very pleasing to God, making a better channel of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you've noticed that after a good workout you almost immediately feel better spiritually, emotionally and psychologically – that is because you have, in essence, worshiped physically.

Whitney says spiritual disciplines should start with the two most important things: the Word and prayer. “In that order,” he says. “It is more important for us to hear from God than for Him to hear from us. Everything else grows out of these two.”

Patience

You don't like this one, but you're not alone. There are no other humans who believe they have any patience, either!

Whitney nails down the essence of patience: trust. “In a sense, everything is a theological issue,” Whitney says. “And the question here is, ‘Do we believe that God is in control and that God knows best?' “

If the answer is yes, it will show in our patience. If the answer is no, it will show in our impatience. Whitney says, “You always do what you do because you believe what you believe.”

Patience means waiting, and we live in a culture that says, “You can have what you want and you can have it now!” That's not the way God wants. If He gave us what we wanted before He prepared us to receive it, we wouldn't appreciate it properly – we might not even recognize it!

So we must wait. For the husband or wife (He is teaching you how to love and trust Him first). For the true friendship you never seem to find (He is teaching you that He is the perfect and sufficient friend). For the job and thus income that will meet your needs (Again, He is teaching that He is sufficient, and how to be satisfied with little or plenty).

In Romans 15 we read, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.” (emphasis added)

When we are impatient, what are we seeking? Most often, some form of comfort. This passage tells us that both patience and comfort are in the Scriptures. God is the God of patience and comfort. Keeping our eyes fixed on Him and His Word is the way to discover patience and have comfort! It is contained in God and His Word.

Yet, in our self-serving, self-fixing mentality, we so often look away from God and His Word to our own solutions. We are impatient, unwilling and – in our human nature – unable to hold on until His plan – far better than anything we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21) – is revealed. Patiently stay the course – it will be worth the wait!

Compassion

If indeed we so focus on God that we become like Him, we will be clothed with this characteristic. The compassion – often translated ‘mercy' – of God has been visited upon you if you know Him personally. He intends for you to pass it on!

In 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, we read a distinct, clear passage about why God shows compassion on us. Verse four is especially clear: “(He) who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Christ-like people are channels of God's blessing; God flows through them so that God is revealed foremost, not the person.

“Love is the chief mark of a Christian,” Whitney says. “Jesus said to the Pharisees (the religious people), ‘Go and learn this, I desire compassion, not sacrifice.'

“So many of the most popular stories about Jesus or told by Jesus – the good Samaritan, Jesus and the woman at the well – speak of compassion.”

The practical living of a compassionate life calls for mentally disciplining ourselves to view people as Christ does, that is, see their sin and treat their sin as Christ treats us when we sin – with loving kindness and mercy. If we pass on the compassion of Christ as He gave it to us, we will me imitators of Christ – and that is the ultimate goal of a Christian.

 This story originally appeared in Christian Single magazine.