Week 19: Creating Character Content
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
James 1:2-3
When I taught seminary I led the preaching classes. One lecture attempted to relate Aristotle’s three aspects of rhetoric to preaching. In the Greek-speaking world, there was something called logos (the word and message of the speaker), pathos (the speaker's passion when speaking), and ethos (the speaker's personal life).
If you had to guess, which of those three is the most important aspect of a speaker’s presentation (or a preacher's presentation)? Undoubtedly the first answer of preachers was always the “logos” -word. Their minds went to their Bibles and they reasoned that the message was most integral. They would be shocked when I told them that was not the answer. Naturally, they then went to pathos. Surely, a passionate speaker who can tell stories and make you emotionally connect is vital. Perhaps, but not the most important aspect of speaking. Who would have thought that ethos, the ethics of the speaker, was most important? It’s true. You can have someone say all the right things, and say them with passion, but if you don’t trust their character then you won’t listen. If a known charlatan preacher got up and said all the right things, it wouldn’t matter that he preached a perfect three-point exposition. You’d struggle to hear it. My humorous analogy was always this: “We wouldn’t ask Bill Clinton to teach a marriage seminar, and we wouldn’t ask George W. Bush to give a grammar lesson.” As right as their words, there’s the character issue.
In the Christian school setting your character is as loud as your subject…and even louder. They know you to some degree. What will the student see about you? If God has you in a distinctly Christian school teaching as a ministry, then God is going to work on your character.
Character building is the point of James 1:1-4. The half-brother of Jesus begins his message to his church flock with the issue of building godly endurance. God accomplishes this endurance through something James calls trials and testing, and he wants us to understand that trials and testing are a part of the Christian’s regular walk.
First, every believer has trials. Even the people in the Bible dealt with constant change and disappointment. James begins his letter to dispersed believers with this statement, “Consider it joy…when you meet trials of various kinds.” James was not thoughtless in his statement. He was meeting their needs. The people he was writing to had faced many trials. Believers had been dispersed throughout the Roman empire because their home (Jerusalem) had been a center of heavy Christian persecution. That’s why he starts with, “To the twelve tribes in the dispersion (James 1:1).” The people James wrote to had experienced massive change and intense uncertainty. Are you facing uncertainty and change? Everyone does, so know that you are not alone, and that the Bible has relevant answers.
Second, trials will always be with us. It’s not that we may meet trials, it’s that we will meet them. What kind of trials? Various! The word that James uses means that there is no limit to the scope and level of trials. That may discourage you, but God intends for our lives to be changing with the seasons. Here’s the good news, this too shall pass. Here’s more good news: whatever struggle you have today, in six months you’ll have forgotten it. You’ll also have a whole new set of trials and troubles then, so hang on!
Third, trials are good for us. James tells us to be joyful in trials because it produces in us endurance. This is contrary to how many Christians think today. It is tempting to think that since we are children of Almighty God it means we will be exempt from testing. The opposite is true. Because you are a child of God you will have trials for the purpose of proving the genuineness of your faith. God introduces moments of testing us, which come in the form of trials. And they all produce greater endurance.
A group of men meets at my home each Sunday night for discipleship. Our chats around the fire pit are always encouraging. One brother, who grew up in our school ministry, blessed me when he said, “What may be a trial to someone else may not seem like a trial from your perspective. That’s true because you’ve grown spiritually, so you have a different perspective.” Wow! How true. The longer we walk with Jesus the trials that we used to be so taken with will seem like simple things. I suppose that’s the point of testing. God gives us strength as we work out in the gym of difficulties.
You have trials in your life right now. Here’s the good news: This is no surprise, it’s for your good, and God is going to use it to develop character. You need that as you teach students. Your ministry is more than parsing, coaching, or explaining. Your ministry is about godly character combined with sound teaching.
Discussion Questions:
If appropriate and possible, what are ways (or examples and testing experiences) of how God has created in you endurance?
How can we have joy in the midst of pain (trials and testing)?
You have known believers who could endure. Did they have a history of trials? How did God use that to create character? How is the same thing creating character in your life?
