Recapturing Christian Virtue in our modern world

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (KJV) 1 John 4:17

In the verse above, we read “… as he is, so are we in this world”. We are the moon and God is the Sun, so we’re expected to reflect the Sun to the world. We Christians stand before the watching-world expecting to see something in us (perhaps the humility that says the love of God is vital and the grace to transform humanity is necessary). The modern world looks at us and is waiting. But I am hesitant to add: maybe the world having wearied of waiting they have even stopped looking. How then do we recapture the attention of the watching-world and let them know human transformation is necessary? How do we carry out our primary image-bearing vocation?

In many passages in the scripture, not least in the epistles or letters written by the apostle Paul we’re called to develop virtues (the fruit of the Spirit) through the help of the Holy Spirit. It is only when we have developed these virtues (become a second-nature), when there is a choice for us to act we will have our instincts tuned, not to what the popular culture demands, but to what the gospel says. Only then, then when someone asks, “Tell me about Jesus”, will we truly know what to say.

Where does all this begin? Again, in the letter to the church in Galatia, Paul writes: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24)”. There lies a hint to recapturing the Christian Virtue – “cruciform”. If we haven’t been crucified, all this won’t make sense to us and in our fleshly attempts to achieve it we will end up in frustration. The starting point really is believing in the Savior Jesus Christ (John 7:38).

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