Thirty Nine Balanced Characteristics of Godliness (I Tim 6:6-8)
"There is an immense profit for godlienss accompandied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency). This is great and abundant gain. For we brought nothing into the world and it is certain we can carry nothing out... But those who crave to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish (useless, godless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction and miserable perishing." (I Tim 6:6-8)
Illustration: Character Endures
Fame is a vapor,
Popularity an accident.
Riches take wings.
Only one thing endures,
Character.
- Horace Greely
Illustration: Character Killers
1. Self-centeredness.
2. Distorting the gospel to serve your agenda .
3. Using your verbal skills to control others.
4. Appetite for power and possessions.
5. Immorality.
David Burnham, Discoveries, V. 3, No. 1
Illustration: Character is simply long habit continued. - Plutarch
Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take with us. - Humboldt
Character is not made in crisis—it is only exhibited. - Freeman
We do not need more knowledge, we need more character! - Calvin Coolidge
Character is what you are in the dark. - D.L. Moody
Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty. - Woodrow Wilson
Character is much easier kept than recovered. - T. Paine
The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back. - Abigail Van Buren
The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
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1. Be Accountable without getting hung up on doing things right and forgetting to do right things
2. Be Alert, but do not be quick to criticize, doubt or presume something missing without first looking for the silver cloud behind every dark cloud in situations and people.
Illustration: Character Not Comfort
God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually. - Paul W. Powell
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3. Be All Things to All Men to win some without being insecure about your own identity, personality, outlook, convictions, experiences, callings, culture, genetics, ideas or background.
Everything You Need to Know
Six ways to learn everything you ever need to know about a man before you decide to marry him:
1. Watch him drive in heavy traffic.
2. Play tennis with him.
3. Listen to him talk to his mother when he doesn’t know you’re listening.
4. See how he treats those who serve him (waiters, maids).
5. Notice what he’s willing to spend his money to buy.
6. Look at his friends. And if you still can’t make up your mind, then look at his shoes. A man who keeps his shoes in good repair generally tends to the rest of his life too.
Lois Wyse, Good Housekeeping, April 1985
Illustration:
4. Be Amiable, but do not be so socially concerned that you become a man pleaser willing to do whatever it takes for people to like you.
5. Be Analytical with becoming too wrapped up in details and problems in situations or people.
6 Aspire to Greatness, but do not pursue only selfish ambitions that involve dirty politicizing.
7. Be Balanced without lacking hard convictions to do what is right even when it is unpopular.
8. Be Bold without being over-bearing, pushy or insisting on your own way.
9. Be Compassionate, but do not be overly sympathetic, empathetic, or gullible.
Illustration: Mistakes in Hiring
W. Michael Blumenthal, chairman of Unisys, talks about the mistakes he made in hiring: In choosing people for top positions, you have to try to make sure they have a clear sense of what is right and wrong, a willingness to be truthful, the courage to say what they think and to do what they think is right, even if the politics militate against that. This is the quality that should really be at the top. I was too often impressed by the intelligence and substantive knowledge of an individual and did not always pay enough attention to the question of how honest, courageous and good a person the individual really was.
Jerry Flint, in Forbes
10. Be Confident, but do not become arrogant, high minded, and conceited.
11. Be Contextual without being inappropriate, compromising or lacking in relevance to reality.
12. Be Cooperative, but do not resort to conniving, intrigue, or under-handed tactics.
13. Be Courageous, but do not become a loose canon that shouts ones mouth off whenever you become irritated. Do not let subjective moods cloud your sense of objective purposes and processes
14. Be Courteous, but do not merely resort to superficial flattery to impress people.
15. Be Creative, but do not let your dreams dictate how you live your life. Do not let speculations, imaginations, or visions of greatness determine your sense of well being.
16. Be Decisive, but do not become so stuck in your ways that you lose flexibility.
17. Be Diligent, but do not get into one-track thinking. Do not become selfishly industrious.
18. Be Directed by the scriptures without being a legalist, a hair-splitter, dogmatic or one who fails
to realize that all truth is God’s truth.
19. Be Discerning, but do not become judgmental, overly critical, or proud of your analysis.
Illustration: Not Without Dust and Heat
“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversity, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.”
John Milton, Courage - You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear, Jon Johnston, 1990, SP Publications, p. 34
20. Be Disciplined, but do not become rigid, harsh, overbearing, or dictatorial.
21. Be Discrete, but do not be so over-cautious that you are afraid to act on truth. Do not become so timid and afraid that you simply do not want to make any mistakes or hurt others’ feelings.
22. Be Earnest, but do not become nervously meticulous, over conscientious, or over serious.
23. Be Efficient, but do not become enslaved by perfectionism, fussiness, or impatience.
24. Be Empowered by God without being too authoritative, dictatorial, or overbearing.
25. Be Enthusiastic, but not fanatical or over wrought hl your approach to solving problems.
26. Be Evangelistic without being so one tracked that you cannot talk about a person’s felt needs.
27. Be Expressive without being wordy, glib, vociferous or melodramatic.
28. Be Fair-minded without being indecisive or allowing fairness issues to halt your progress.
29. Be Flexible without being wishy-washy, spineless, or a doormat for others’ purposes.
30. Be Forgiving without being irresponsible in your leniency, permissiveness, or weakness.
31. Be Frank without being tactless, insensitive, undiplomatic or disrespectful.
32. Be Friendly without being nepotistic, cliquish, or tribalistic.
Illustration: Reputation & Character
Character is the one thing we make in this world and take with us into the next. The circumstances amid which you live determine your reputation; the truth you believe determines your character.
Reputation is what you are supposed to be; Character is what you are.
Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; Character is what you have when you go away.
Reputation is made in a moment; Character is built in a lifetime.
Reputation grows like a mushroom; Character grows like an oak.
Your reputation is learned in an hour; Your character is does not come to light for a year.
A single newspaper report gives your reputation; a life of toil gives you your character.
Reputation makes you rich or makes you poor; Character makes you happy or makes you miserable.
Reputation is what men say about you on your tombstone; Character is what angels say about you before the throne of God.
Your character is what God knows you to be. Your reputation is what men think you are.
William Hershey Davis
33. Be Frugal without being cheap, stingy, or penny wise and pound-foolish.
34. Be Generous without being extravagant, wasteful or squandering away God’s resources.
35. Be Gracious without being a push over.
36. Be Grateful without being too flattering, gushy, or over generous in giving compliments.
37. Be Hateful of what is evil without becoming obnoxious or self-righteous.
38. Be Holistic without being eclectic, synergistic, or lacking focus.
Illustration; Oscar Wilde
When Oscar Wilde arrived for a visit to the U.S. in 1882, he was asked by customs officials if he had anything to declare. He replied: “Only my genius.” Fifteen years later, alone and broken in prison, he reflected on his life of waste and excess. “I have been a spend thrift of my genius...I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.”
Imprimis, Vol 20, #9
39. Be Holy without being pious, Pharisaical, or self-righteous.
Conclusion: Off Guard
Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way, the suddenness of the provocation does not make me ill-tempered; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. - C.S. Lewis
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