Cultivating Christian Character...•The Provisions for a Christ-Centered Life Previously… •What...

Cultivating Christian

Character

ATTRIBUTION/CREDITS

• “Essential Virtues – Marks of the Christ-

Centered Life”

• Written by: Jim Berg

• Copyright: 2008 by BJU Press

Previously…

• The Portrait of a Christ-

Centered Life

• The Provisions for a Christ-

Centered Life

Previously…

• What is the Portrait of a Christ-

Centered life?

–It’s a life characterized by

believers cultivating Christian

character intentionally and

actively by developing

Scripturally directed virtues

Previously…

•How has God provided for

us?

–The Person of Jesus Christ

–God’s promises

Previously…

•Why has God done this?

–So we can WORK THE

FARM!

–Go use what God has provided

to cultivate our Christian

character

Previously…

The Virtues

• Goodness (Excellence)

• Knowledge

• Self-control

• Perseverance (Endurance)

• Godliness

• Brotherly kindness

• Love

VIDEO

The Groundwork for

Christlike Character

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

2 Pet 1:5: “add to your faith goodness”

• KJV says “virtue”

• Usage different when this was written

• Complete list we’re looking at we call “essential virtues” for cultivating Christian character

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•Greek = “arête”

• In context, Peter was writing

amongst the culture he lived in

•We need to interpret the word

“arête” as it was used in that

culture

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•To the Greeks, “arête” denoted the proper fulfillment of anything

•Properly fulfilling whatever purpose something was made for

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•Proper fulfillment =

EXCELLENCE

•Doing it exactly the way it

was made/meant to be done

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•Peter made excellence first

on his list of essential virtues

•Why do you think he did so?

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•None of the other virtues he’s

going to tell us to cultivate will

be used for the right purpose

unless we decide what our

purpose is and commit

ourselves to fulfilling it

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•So then…

•What is the definitive

purpose for a believer?

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

A Christian’s Purpose Statement

1 Pet 2:9: “But you (believer) are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (there’s one of those promises),

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

A Christian’s Purpose Statement

(and here it comes) that you may

declare the praises (arête) of him

who called you out of darkness into

his wonderful light.”

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•Here Peter is telling us that

God is arête – God is

EXCELLENT

•He also tells us what makes

us excellent…

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

• Developing and exhibiting the excellencies of God!

• We are to become like Christ in our character and by the way we live our lives so that…

• Others see in us what Christ is like so that they too can know and honor Him Here

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

• Makes no different how smart, rich, or successful we are

• Makes no difference how many people respect and admire us

• If we do not display the excellent character of God in our character and our lives we cannot consider ourselves excellent

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•For what is excellence?

•How well we’re fulfilling our purpose

•This is what it means when Peter says “add to your faith excellence (arête)”

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

• Every believer must decide

that we have one purpose with

this life and commit to

fulfilling that purpose

• There will be no significant

spiritual maturing until we do

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

Normal Christianity

• Fulfilling this single-minded purpose is a call to normal Christianity

• As Berg said, the squishy, feel good Christianity displayed all too frequently in the church today is abnormal, sub par, below standard, deficient

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)Normal Christianity

• Romans 12:1-2 says worldliness is in direct opposition to our fulfilling our purpose of showing God’s excellence

• The world entices believers away from their purpose in so many ways

• Fools us into believing these worldly things are real and make us feel alive and fulfilled–…all without God

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

Normal Christianity

• Satan has his own chart of “essential vices” which cultivate a demonic character

• Proverbs paints the portrait of this progression in Proverbs 1:22

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

Normal Christianity

“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?”

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

The Simple Man

•The “kindergarten” fool

•Weak and worldly

•Easily lured by the sensuality of worldly interests

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

The Simple Man

• Not naïve of the appeal and ideals of the world

• Definitely, however, naïve about the ends of those quests

• Level of discernment, per Berg, is that of an average American junior higher (book)

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

The Fool

•Graduates into willful and wild

•Bristles at restraint, shares

freely his misguided opinions,

undermines and deceives the

authorities in his life

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

The Fool

• Knows what he wants and is sneaky and deceptive in his quest to get it

• Conscience is progressively hardened

• Personality and values become more and more shaped by the world

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)The Scorner

• End product of Satan’s “essential vices”

• Continuing indulgence in sin leaves him wicked and his life, in the end, wasted

• Full of anger, sometimes violence

• The perfect portrait of Satan-like character

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

• These “essential vices” show why total commitment to become Christlike is the only antidote

• That is our standard – Christlikeness

• Stunning how clear life choices become, even those so called gray areas, when measured against the standard of Christlikeness

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

• The standard is unachievably high…

• It will cost you everything (Jesus said it would)

•You will fail (many times)– Thank goodness for God’s unending forgiveness!

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•Yet we’re called to embrace

it as our own, commit to

achieving our purpose, and

never stop striving for it

Cultivating Goodness

(Excellence)

•This is where we start –

cultivating excellence (arête)

• It’s the foundation for

cultivating all other virtues

Peter tells us to cultivate

Next Week…

Exploring the Groundwork of

Christian

Character…

Knowledge