There is a lot of talk today about core values, especially in the business world. Companies, churches, and even individuals are spending time to determine what is most valuable to them. Once these values are established, the values define the boundaries of how they do business. Churches are defining their core values so that they can focus on God’s purpose for their existence. People are defining their core values so that they have a framework out of which to make decisions.
When we think of values that define the boundaries or characterize a person’s life, I believe values are a good place to start. However, for the values to become qualities of character, they must become virtues.
There isn’t much emphasis on virtues in our society today. We are living in the wake of a movement to remove the training in virtues from our schools and places of work. While there continues to be much talk about morality, without virtues to support morality, morality in and of its self will eventually fall flat. Virtues are the qualities of character that provide the basis for morality. So, instead of defining our core values for our lives, we need to define the core virtues that will guide our behavior, our decision-making, and our relationships.
In a article titled "Teaching the Virtues", Christina Hoff Sommers, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Clark University tells this story.
Not very long ago, I published an article called "Ethics without Virtue" in which I criticized the way ethics is being taught in American colleges. I pointed out that there is an overemphasis on social policy questions, with little or no attention being paid to private morality.
I noted that students taking college ethics are debating abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, DNA research, and the ethics of transplant surgery while they learn almost nothing about private decency, honesty, personal responsibility, or honor. Topics such as hypocrisy, self-deception, cruelty or selfishness rarely came up. I argued that the current style of ethics teaching, which concentrated so much on social policy was giving students the wrong ideas about ethics. Social morality is only half of the moral life; the other half is private morality. I urged that we attend to both.
A colleague of mine did not like what I said. She told me that in her classroom she would continue to focus on issues of social injustice. She taught about women’s oppression, corruption in big business, multinational corporations and their transgressions in the Third World - that sort of thing. She said to me, "You are not going to have moral people until you have moral institutions. You will not have moral citizens until you have a moral government." She made it clear that I was wasting time and even doing harm by promoting bourgeois morality and the bourgeois virtues instead of awakening the social conscience of my students.
At the end of the semester, she came into my office carrying a stack of exams and looking very upset.
"What’s wrong?" I asked.
"They cheated on their social justice take-home finals. They plagiarized!" More than half of the students in her ethics class had copied long passages from the secondary literature. "What are you going to do?" I asked her. She gave me a self-mocking smile and said, "I’d like to borrow a copy of that article you wrote on ethics without virtue."
In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Paul is building a case for salvation by faith rather than salvation through religious law. In chapter five, he contrasts what life looks like when it is lived by the values of sin and the values of the Spirit. Let’s read what he wrote.
Galatians 5:16-26 (NLT)
16So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. 18But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.
19When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.
In verses 22 & 23 Paul identifies the fruit of the Spirit, which are the core virtues of the Christian life.
As Christians, we all desire to have this fruit in our lives. We have tried to be loving people. Joy seems to elude our every attempt to grasp it. Most of us gave up on patience a long time ago when we realized that the only way to develop patience is to be in situations that demand it. We grow tired of always being kind and good. We feel defeated every time we think of being faithful. It’s hard to be gentle in a tough world. And we don’t like telling our selves “no”, so we have very little self-control. Yet, deep within each of us, there is longing for these virtues to rise to the top of our lives.
So, how does this fruit become the qualities that define our lives?
Let’s look closely at the first part of verse 22: when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us.
As I was praying and thinking about this passage and this series, I first began associating the fruit with values. I planned to name this series The Core Values of the Christian Life. Then I thought about the word virtues and wondered if the two are basically the same. After reading some articles and a couple of definitions I realized that while values and virtues are very similar, there is a major difference.
When we say that we value something, we are placing value on the object. Values are objects we consider to have worth or importance. We place value on a car, a house, a piece of property, or an antique. We even place value certain behaviors over others. But, in and of its self, does the thing have value? No. Its worth is based upon the value we place upon it.
A virtue, on the other hand, is a quality of character that comes from within and cannot be externally imposed.
You observe a person with character qualities you admire and you resign to develop and grow those qualities within you. No matter how hard you try, you eventually get tired of trying or you have lapses into your natural behavior.
This is what Paul is talking about in Galatians chapter five. The only way these core virtues will grow in our lives is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Look again at verse 22: when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us. Underline the words Holy Spirit controls and circle the words he will produce.
This is good news! We don’t have to produce these virtues within us. The Holy Spirit produces them!
He produces these virtues when we give him control of our lives. Draw a box around the word control. The growth of this fruit within us is in direct proportion to our obedience to the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul isn’t saying that we passively sit back and wait for the Holy Spirit to produce these virtues within us. We have a part to take in the production of these virtues as well. Our responsibility is to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do.
Jesus said it this way in John chapter 15.
John 15:1-5 (NLT)
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
5“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
In his book, Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones, wrote a devotional titled "Fastening on Dead Branches". He tells the story of a vine he watched stretch across space to attach its self to a tree. In due time, the vine made it. A few days later a storm came through and pulled the vine from its moorings. The vine had attached its self to a dead limb of the tree. If it had attached to the tree truck, it would have survived the storm.
He then warned the reader to be sure to attach to the Tree, God. Too often we attach ourselves to the dead limbs of religion, good resolutions, church, rituals, or ministers. All of these will let us down.
As we begin this study of the Core Virtues of the Christian Life, let’s keep in mind what the Apostle Paul and Jesus have taught us this morning.
First, we are not the fruit. We are the branches. Being controlled by the Holy Spirit is same as remaining in Jesus. We want to remain attached to the main truck, which is Jesus our Lord.
Second, we cannot produce these virtues. They are the products of the work of the Holy Spirit within us. They are the virtues which our Lord modeled for us when he was on this earth.
Third, we are not to be passive. We are to remain in the vine, Jesus Christ. We remain in Christ by talking with him daily in prayer. We remain in Christ by reading, meditating, and studying his Word. We remain in Christ by being obedient to his commands.
Closing
Do you have core virtues to guide your behavior? These virtues are present in your life. But we all have room to grow.
Will you make a commitment to the Lord to allow him to produce these virtues within you?
