A Culture of Virtue, An Agent of Change

Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint commentary titled “Etiquette Arising” hits home for me on many levels. It speaks to the value of virtue and the change in culture that can “arise” from exercising moral excellence. Colson says a high school teacher who modeled respect for the young girls in his class demonstrated that his “show of respect [to the girl students] has led to a difference in the way the boys behave around the girls. Being taught to show respect for them leads [the girls] to feel more respectful toward [the boys].” Virtue begets virtue! Imagine that!!

Whether working in churches, para-church organizations, or purely secular environments, I have found that basic kindness, respect, patience, and common civility stands out in the crowd. Why? Because humans by nature are sinful and this sin affects our attitudes, dispositions, and demeanor. We typically “wear our heart on our sleeve,” as one saying goes, and our hearts by nature are not so worthy of being on display. Consequently, everyone has to work at exercising the virtues; they don’t come naturally. Sadly many believe they have a right to express their raw feelings or base thoughts, with little or no regard for how they may affect others. Then, when victims of abuse return the favor because they’ve been coarsely treated, offenders increase their abuse resulting in a decrease of civility and an increase of thoughtless vulgarities. To break this behavior pattern we have to put new behaviors in their place. I applaud the high school teacher for doing this!

Last night at the dinner table, my wife, daughter, grandson, and I read through the first half of 2 Peter 1. In part it reads (from the New Living Translation):

Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After this reading we had a good discussion about our responses to one another in the family and, quite rightly, not a few rebukes were issued to me. Despite the fact that I already know these things (as Peter says, 2 Peter 1:12), I needed to be reminded that my faith must be “supplemented” with moral excellencies. In other words, while my faith in Christ is necessary, it is not sufficient to grow in Christ. I must “clothe” or adorn myself with the Christlike qualities of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). It doesn’t happen naturally. I must work at it.

Peter goes on to say that the gradual increase of these virtues will make my “knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” “productive and useful.” Reading this negatively can be crushing, namely “the less you grow like this, the less productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ouch! I honestly cannot think of any worse use of my life than to be unproductive and useless for Christ. Instead, I earnestly want to be “diligent to make [my] calling and election sure” so that by “practic[ing] these qualities [I] will never fall.”

I’m prayerfully hopeful that I grow in these virtues so I can be a catalyst for change in my family and work culture. To this end I am looking forward to beginning N. T. Wright’s newest After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters.