Dear Friends,
A personal character can be defined as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Good personal character is when someone behaves in a way that meets ‘good’ moral characteristics in society. Examples of what can be considered as good characters are honest, responsible, respectful, fair, caring, loyal, law-abiding, etc.
The Bible teaches that followers of Jesus Christ should be of good character, as a representative of God in all areas of our lives. There is no better place to demonstrate good character than the workplace where we spend most of our productive time hence my decision to focus on ‘Character’ as a principle of work.
Another reason I chose to write on character is to follow up on what I wrote about last time – being the salt and light of the world. The truth is that our character is the manifestation of our being salt and light and as Jesus puts it ‘by their fruit you shall know them’.
The Bible tells us – Jesus is God
To begin again from Genesis 1:26, we note that God created mankind in His image and likeness, so we can easily connect that God wants us to have His character. To answer or describe what God’s character is, we only have to look at Jesus. As the Bible describes, Jesus is the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3) and in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body (Colossians 2:9). These scriptures give us confirmation that we can know the nature and character of God through Jesus Christ.
I believe we can know the Character of Jesus Christ as His earthly life and words are faithfully recorded in the Gospels. But basing our knowledge of Christ on the Gospels alone will limit our understanding of who He is as the entire Bible, both old and new testaments, are all about Him. The concluding part of the Gospel of John put it in the best way that ‘if every one of what Jesus did were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written’ (John 21:25).
My understanding is that the Bible is a complete revelation of God to us in this dispensation until we see Jesus face to face and then everything else will be revealed. In the meantime we must try our best, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live according to what we know of the life and word of Jesus in the bible.
Based on my general knowledge of the bible and what is written about Jesus, I can loosely run out a list of Jesus’s characteristics that comes to my mind; humility, love, compassion, caring, trustworthiness, truthful, respect, honest, welcoming, gentle, just, fair, generous, patient, etc. I encourage you to do the same, just run through a list in your head and try to connect each trait to a story about Jesus in the bible. Awesome and amazing Jesus!
On the other hand, based on knowledge of myself and the world, I can equally roll out an opposite list of characteristics that I know I must not show if I am to represent Jesus. Examples would be pride, arrogance, hatred, jealousy, rage, bitterness, envy, gossip, betrayal, slander, laziness, gluttony, etc. I am sure you can also add others to the list!
Only the best is expected of Christ followers
This blog is all about how we can spur one another on to be the best person God wants us to be in the workplace. We may not be able to proclaim the Gospel of salvation to everyone that comes across us in the workplace but we most definitely will be able to minister to them by our character. According to a statement credited to Maya Angelou “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
We must all, therefore, pay attention to the characters of Jesus that we have listed and make sure we live according to them so that people around us will experience Jesus through us. This must be the case whether we are in the office with others or we are working remotely from home as many of us currently do. A lot can be said about us by the way we communicate by email or the way we speak on the phone, so we need to be mindful of what image we project.
The next few paragraphs are personal reflection taken directly from my published book ‘Freedom to Choose: Reflections on Father/Son Relationship’. You may purchase a copy of the book on Amazon using the link https://amzn.to/3hIEFYv
‘The Bible makes it clear that people who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ will become a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!’ It is therefore important that any of us who claims to be a follower of Jesus must be able to look back to when we made the decision and how we have improved over time. I like to use two scriptural yardsticks as a measure of that new life in Christ.
The first is the use of what is known as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 lists this as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But before you choose which of the characteristics you may have improved, it is important to note the singular use of ‘fruit’ in the scripture. This means that everyone who has been made alive in Christ must exhibit personal growth in all the listed nine characteristics.
The second yardstick of growth and perhaps a more difficult one is what is described by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount which is also referred to as the beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). Jesus used this sermon to list nine characteristics that predict specific blessings on his followers but these characteristics are not what you will normally expect. Jesus proclaimed specific blessings on his followers who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted because of righteousness, and those who are insulted, persecuted and falsely accused because of Jesus.
I believe this second measure of growth is very crucial, because whilst we can be blinded as to how far we have grown in the fruit of the spirit, we cannot fail to realise when we are growing in the beatitude because of the insult, accusation, and persecution that will come as part of that growth. I need to reflect if the way I now do things is different from the way of the world and if I am growing stronger in facing the persecutory consequences of taking that position of righteousness. That is the only time I can rejoice and be glad because then I am sure that I have a great reward in heaven’.
I am still learning and growing to be like Jesus and each day I spend in His presence makes me realise how far I still have to go. All I can say is that I am a work in progress.
Ask and follow the path of Jesus
What about you? Why don’t you take a few moments to reflect on your journey so far? A few questions to ask yourself are: who were you before you met Christ and what has changed? If someone from work was talking about your character, how would they describe you? What are the things that usually cause you to lose your Jesus (salt and light) character?
Whatever the outcome of our reflection, please know that it does not affect the way God sees us as His love for us is unconditional. His grace is always there for us and so we can still make a new commitment to try and do better, by the help of His Holy Spirit as maintaining Godly character is not by power or might. We can make this a daily prayer request, for God to help us live the day as He would and then submit to His will as He guides us through the day.
Based on personal experience, I can affirm that our God is faithful, He will not cast us away when we ask for His help and He will, through us, shine His light into our workplaces to bring glory to His Holy Name.
Please try the above approach and send your feedback and comments to hello@fmministry.co.uk or use the comment box below.
God bless you and keep growing in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Adesina
Awesome 👌