The development of our character is more than a single, once-and-done act. The growth of character happens throughout all of life, and the deepest development of character happens in cooperation with God. As we yield to the Holy Spirit, He forms his character (the fruit of the Spirit) inside of us.
So, what exactly is character? Author and pastor Andy Stanley defines character as, “the will to do what is right, as defined by God, regardless of personal cost.” That’s a succinct, powerful definition. So, how do we develop our character? I believe the apostle Paul gives us some unique insight in Romans 12:1-2 when he writes:
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
This passages reveals a character development cycle. Within the cycle are four distinct stages.
1. Submit to God
Paul begins, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him” (Romans 12:1, MSG).
The act of placing your life before God as an offering is a declaration of your loyalty to God. But when your loyalties are split, the first place it shows up is in your character. Think about it…character is all about having integrity. The word integrity means to be whole, complete, and undivided. Divided loyalty always results in divided integrity. Simply put, character doesn’t begin with how you act; it begins with who you’re loyal to. Are you loyal to God, or loyal to the world, convenience, or compromise?
Before God used Jonathan Edwards to author dozens of books, serve as president of Yale University, or spark the First Great Awakening with his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he consecrated himself to God. On January 12, 1723, Edwards wrote in his diary:
“I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down; giving up myself, and all that I had to God; to be for the future, in no respect, my own; to act as one that had no right to himself, in any respect. And solemnly vowed, to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else, as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were.”
Why did God use Jonathan Edwards in such an extraordinary way? Because he gave up himself. He declared he had no right to himself. His loyalties were undivided. Proverbs 11:3 says, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” Character begins with our undivided submission and loyalty to God.
2. Renew Your Mind
Paul continues, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out” (Romans 12:2a, MSG). Another translation says to be, “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
How do we renew our minds? With the truth of God’s Word. When we renew our minds in truth, we can align our lives with truth. As Andy Stanley said, “character is the will to do what is right, as defined by God…” If you don’t renew your mind with truth, you will never know how God defines what is right, and as a result, your character will take the hit.
3. Exhibit Trustworthy Behavior
William Raspberry, Pulitzer prize winning journalist, once said, “If you want to be thought of as a solid, reliable pillar of your community when you’re fifty, you can’t be an irresponsible, corner-cutting exploiter at twenty-five….The time to worry about your reputation is before you have one. You determine your reputation by deciding who and what you are and by keeping that lofty vision for yourself in mind, even when you’re having a rip-roaring good time.”
Unfortunately, Edward Smith, captain of the Titanic, didn’t heed this advice. One year before he set sail on the Titanic, Captain Smith collided with the HMS Hawke. Shortly after that, he sailed over submerged wreckage. Titanic was his opportunity to redeem his reputation, so he sped forward in an effort to arrive at his destination ahead of schedule. As we know, he never made it. He struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and the glorious ship sank in the early morning hours of April 15.
You could argue that Captain Smith had some competency issues. But I believe you could argue more so that the core of his problem was a character issue. He didn’t exhibit trustworthy behavior.
Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
The outcome of a life submitted to God and a mind renewed by truth is trustworthy behavior. Are any of us perfect. Of course not. But who you serve and how you think should ultimately translate into how you live.
4. Own Your Failures
Look again at the last part of Romans 12:2: “Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it… Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
What do we do if we fail to quickly respond to what God wants from us? What do we do if we fail to cooperate with God to develop well-formed maturity in us? We must own our failures. Look once again at Andy’s definition of character: “Character is the will to do what is right, as defined by God, regardless of personal cost.” The question is, are you willing to maintain character and integrity, even when it costs you?
Business leader and aviator, Bill Lear discovered this after inventing the Lear Jet. After a successful launch, Lear sold 55 jets. But when two of his planes crashed, Lear grounded the planes until he could discover the problem. The loss of human life devastated him. But Lear, after simulating what caused the crashes (and almost losing his own life in the process), discovered the problem. He created a part to address the issue, and then cleared the planes to fly again. Bill Lear did the right thing. He owned his failure. That decision set his business back two years, but his character remained. If you never own your failures, you’ll never own the trust of others.
Notice, this is a cycle. When you own your failures, the cycle begins again. You take that failure, and you submit it to God. Then your mind is renewed by truth and you adjust your life to exhibit trustworthy behavior. Somewhere along the way, you’ll have to own another failure (lots of failures). But if you continually cooperate with God and remain sensitive to His Spirit, He will develop “well-formed maturity in you.” That’s how He develops your character.
