Further Thoughts on Character and Calling
As I mentioned at the start of the series labeled ‘Beyond Resistance’, the articles belonging to it were originally published on Better, for a general audience. I feel the need to insert here this new one, with some additional thoughts.
Christians readers will immediately recognize that what I termed, in the previous post, ‘common good’ values or ‘values related to character’ are those that describe the character of God.
He is the one who is utterly Just, Loving and Compassionate, and He made us to be His image, and reflect all those good qualities.
I believe all people everywhere are created and called to this great purpose: are endowed with the ability to represent Him, and do so when those good traits are present in their lives. However, our present life is not the whole story. Our character is what we take with us into the next. And, however virtuous we might have been, it won’t be enough when we stand under the scrutiny and Judgement of the Holy One. All our good deeds are as dirty rags before Him. All our most sincere efforts to be the best we could have been – if they were done apart from us being in submission to Him – will not pass muster. If our lives were lived out outside of His kingdom and lordship, our mission to be His representatives will have failed.
If we are to be God’s true image, both in this life and the next, we need the One who is the perfect representation of His being: Jesus Christ, very God and very Man. We need to be united to Him, created anew, born again – not of the flesh but of the Spirit, through repentance and trust in His redeeming death and resurrection.
It’s then that the character of God will freely grow in us: the fruit of His Holy Spirit. As we remain in the true Vine, we will bring forth fruit.
It took me many years to get clarity on how that works: it’s neither my bare strivings and efforts to ‘be good’ and ‘do good’, neither is it a magic ‘being taken over’ by the Spirit, who will grow in me love, patience, kindness, goodness with zero action on my part.
Just as salvation happens when my will is joined to God’s, in submission to it, it’s the same with my Christian growth. The Spirit is ever willing to grow this fruit in God’s children – but it will not happen without my joining in and acting in obedience to Him.
Immediately after the apostle Paul gives us the wonderful list of what the Spirit creates in us: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”, he adds: “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Action is needed on our part! We are called to “crucify” the desires of the flesh (see the ‘what we want’ from a previous article) and “keep in step” with the Spirit and His desires (‘what we really want’).
As I have said before, I believe every sane human, by the grace of God, has in their hearts not only selfishness and greed, but also a deep yearning for God and many good and pure desires. If recognized, followed and given precedence over the selfish ones, I believe these desires can bring people all that sooner to the point of utter dissatisfaction with sin and to repentance, where they see and embrace Jesus as the One they have been yearning for, as God and Lord. At His Name, ultimately, every knee will bow. If people who don’t know Him yet start paying attention to the ‘eternity in their hearts’, they may willingly bow the knee in this life, and be spared the reluctant but helpless submission those who rejected Him will be brought to in the end.
However, at the moment we choose Jesus as our Lord, the moment of our new birth, or regeneration, not only are any good desires and yearnings satisfied and sanctified, but God imparts to us even more holy desires: for knowing Him more and more, for obeying Him, for working out His purposes in the world, for His will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven”.
These new and renewed desires are part and parcel of our new nature, which we receive when we are born of the Spirit.
I think many Christians are afraid of their desires, and have trouble distinguishing between those of their fallen nature (the old selfishness and greed, which still persist and will only die away together with these old bodies) and the holy ones, placed in their hearts by God. I will make sure to come back to this subject in the future, and see how we can dispel this confusion and fear, which I believe is preventing many of us from heeding and wholeheartedly pursuing God’s calling for our lives.
But just now I want to stress again that the ‘values of calling’, those I listed in the previous post (to which we can add others, specific to the Christian life, such as a calling to missions, or pastoring, etc), are some of those holy desires.
Too often it seems that some of the passions, interests, values, which God has placed in young people’s hearts for His good purposes, are not recognized and validated as such by their Christian families and churches.
Young people are often made to feel that some of the values of calling are somehow superior and worthy of God, while others don’t really have a place in His kingdom. Look at the list again, and I think a few areas I mention there will jump out as being among the least encouraged – even discouraged, in Christian circles. The church doesn’t seem to know what to do with some of them.
Why that might be happening, and why it is unbiblical, and what to do about it – it’s all a big discussion that deserves to take place and be given great attention. I really hope to get back to it as soon as possible in future posts and I’m so interested to hear your thoughts on it as well – please feel free to start the conversation right now in the comments!
For the moment, to conclude this post, I’ll summarize my additional points thus:
Both values of character and calling are from God, and He has placed them in us for His good purposes, so we can be His representatives in the world and do the work He wants done, in and for His kingdom.
Our transformation into Christ’s image (taking on His character, bringing forth fruit, growing in Him, or however we want to look at it) is not something that ‘magically’ happens to us once we are born again. It is something we are called to participate in. We can do that by getting clarity on the interests and passions God has entrusted to us, and on the character traits we need to develop more and more in our lives. That is the ‘little list of values’ that I’m talking about. Different stages of our lives will have different ‘little lists’, but by getting to know our current one, and using it to evaluate and choose our daily activities and actions, we are engaging in the cooperation with the Holy Spirit which life in God’s kingdom is all about.
