The Character Crisis

John MacArthur

Character. It has an old-fashioned sound to it, like a faded relic of the Victorian era. We live in a materialistic culture where prestige, prosperity, and popularity are valued more than genuine integrity. In fact, personal character hardly seems to matter very much at all nowadays – at least in the realms of mass media, entertainment, politics, and pop culture.

Only a few select moral qualities are still prized by society at large. They are chiefly liberal community values such as diversity, tolerance, and broad-mindedness. Sometimes they are even called virtures. But when traits like those are blended with hyprocisy or employed to justify some other iniquity, they become mere caricatures of authenic virtue.

Meanwhile, genuine individual virtue – the stuff of true, timeless, praiseworthy character is made – has been formally relegated to the sphere of “personal” things best not talked about openly. … According to the Bible. God designed us to be men and women of exemplary character. He repeatedly commands us to pursue what is virtuous and shun what is evil. From cover to cover in Scripture, iniquity is condemned and virtue exalted.

Clearly, we are supposed to be men and women of excellent character. We’re commanded to “hold fast what is good [and] abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22). … Truly excellent character is actually a reflection of the moral nature of God Himself. For that reason, all virtures are interdependent and closely related. And all of them are the fruit of God’s grace.

—– [The Quest for Character, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006, p. 12-13] —–

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