Foundations of Character 1/19/41
Scripture: Proverbs 4: 14-27.
Before we begin to speak of the foundations of character, it would be well to try to define what we mean when we speak of character. Dr. Norman Richardson has said that the word “character” may be used to designate the moral quality of an individual’s personality.
Now personality has been defined as the ability to interest and influence others. 3 or 4 years ago a young man wrote a book on “How to win friends and influence people.” The book attracted a rather wide attention, some criticism and some opposition. Another man soon came out with a book on “How to lose friends and alienate people” which was a satire offsetting the other book. For the first book seemed to its critics to take the position that personality is no end in itself, but a means of getting other people to do what one desires them to do - a high-pressure salesman’s concept of the value of personality.
If personality is the ability to interest and influence other people, it is obvious that an individual may have a good or a bad influence upon his fellow-men. By his personality he can influence them in matters that are of great concern to himself. The thing that matters then about personality, which purifies or pollutes the lives of those with whom a man comes in contact, is his character, according to its moral quality.
We may speak of a strong character or a weak character in terms of the degree of influence one’s personality has. Of course there is no moral quality in influencing people. Influence may be either good or bad, weak or strong. Good men do not always have strong characters; bad men do not always have weak characters. Dwight L. Moody and Al Capone, both of Chicago, both had the ability to influence the lives of other men. Both had strong character. We would call the influence on one good, of the other, bad.
The question arises: Is it possible to have both an attractive personality and a strong character? In order to be charming, popular, winsome, is it necessary to surrender part of one’s strength of character? Or must one, in order to have a strong character, be crude and rough and unrefined to such a degree that sensitive people will be repelled by his behavior or appearance?
Some of the prophets, who have been strong enough to get great social reforms under way have sometimes been uncouth, like John the Baptist; Amos, the prophet; or Lincoln the emancipator. It seems that many commented on the roughness of this man, John. Many were offended at Lincoln’s appearance and manner. His hair was sometimes left shaggy. His clothes were ill fitting. Some of his stories though pointed and funny, were nevertheless crude.
On the other hand, some of the best-dressed, best groomed, most refined in manner, and most charming in conversation, have very little moral influence.
Personality traits differ from character traits. There is nothing right or wrong about personality traits in themselves. A person may be described as tall or short, big or little of stature, musical or athletic, feminine or blond or mechanical, without raising any question at all concerning moral strength or weakness. On the other hand, one may be honorable, courageous, truthful, generous or the reverse of all these traits of character - regardless of his height, complexion, nationality or literary ability.
Another difference is that character traits are acquired through experience. One is not born with good or bad character traits. His character develops through living experience. Personality traits, however, are largely inherited. One’s bone structure, complexion, color of eyes and hair, certain nerve structure and physical abilities and mental aptitudes. Of course some of the personality traits may be modified through discipline and culture, particularly the mental traits.
When it is said of a man: “He has personality,” the question of whether his character is good or bad is not raised. That statement is morally neutral. When it is said of a person that his or her character is “above reproach” that characterization is neutral from the standpoint of personality.
The basis of personality is one’s inherited tendencies and talents and their development. Personality is concerned with the ability to impress people, to attract them and often to cause them to change their ways.
The basis for judging character is the standards of right and wrong which are recognized by society, and the extent to which these standards are realized, put into practice in one’s habits and attitudes. Character is concerned with the moral quality of one’s personal influence. Both personality and character should be cultivated.
The character of an individual may be described, morally, as a composite of many character traits. Those who have taken the trouble to study the field and list them, tell use that there are more than 600 of these desirable kinds of morality. Some of the more familiar ones are honor, loyalty, cooperativeness, open-mindedness, truthfulness, honesty, fidelity, patience, optimism, perseverance, trustworthiness, obedience, purity, enthusiasm, humility, kindness, patriotism, and generosity.
It is said that there are more than three thousand codes of business and professional practice now in force in the United States. These codes list various combinations of these common virtues. Penalties are attached to their violation by any member of the organization.
If, then, one is to become a member of these professional and business groups and if one must have the required virtues in abundance, one may ask: “how can these virtues be acquired?” Evidently, they can not be learned in the same way that we learn history or arithmetic or geography. There are so many of them and they occur in so many different combinations, that the task seems hopeless.
Furthermore, every one of these character traits has a wide variety of possible applications. Someone with an analytical mind has discovered that forty different kinds or applications of honesty are required by the employees of a single bank in Detroit. There are millions of these “trait actions” that involve morality - that is, a distinction between right and wrong. No person could learn them all by practice. The fact that a lot of them have not been learned accounts for the blunders of well-meaning people. It would be quite impossible to practice sixty different kinds of honesty, seventy-five different kinds of honor, or 150 kinds of cooperation. It would take more than the seventy or so years of mortal life to gather up all of the needed character traits if we had to acquire them one by one. A person would be physically old while still morally very young.
Two requirements appear, then. Since the worlds of experience and morality are so very great we will have to content ourselves with what comes within the range of our ordinary lifetime, and second, we will have to look for some common denominator for all of this complexity.
“The process of achieving moral character moves from center to circumference.” “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” The commandments emphasized by Jesus, in fulfilling the ancient code of Moses, put motive before action. Jesus did not say “Thou shalt attend church services twice every Sunday” nor “Thou shalt give two or five or ten or 15 cents out of every income dollar to church and charity.” He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.” [Matthew 22: 37]. He did not say, “Thou shalt give a cup of water to every stranger” nor “Thou shalt not strike thy neighbor” nor “Thou shalt not cheat another in a business deal.” He did say, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” [Matthew 22: 39].
“Out of the heart are the issues of life.”
The mechanical practice of virtues does not automatically purify motives. Conduct that is ethically correct, even in minute detail, but not suitably motivated, is hypocrisy! It is possible to be objectively moral in one’s acts and yet wretchedly immoral in the motives from which these seemingly good acts spring.
“Out of the heart” -alone- “are the issues of life.”
Individuals differ greatly in their desire to improve the present status. Some are ambitious for improvement, some not very ambitious. I think that anyone who has somewhat grasped the great moral superiority of Jesus Christ, with his utter unselfishness and his great service passion, must yearn for a better humanity. Perhaps it has been such a yearning that has led to so much talk and effort on behalf of a kingdom of God - a very real realm in which the issues of life shall spring from God-controlled and God-inspired lives.
How we long for a better world! How impatient we are with such imperfect conditions as they are!
And yet a word of caution is necessary. Two marks of a strong character are (1) moderation in one’s disposition to cherish high ideals and (2) a patient pursuit of those that are cherished. Jesus recognized human limitation when he told his listeners, more than once, that he had more to say to them when they could hear it, but not now.
The laws of habit formation and re-formation throw some practical light on the way in which strength and goodness of character are acquired. If one is irregular in his obedience to the mosaic code - that is, the Ten Commandments - or to the code of his business or professional practice, he has a spotty character. He is not thoroughly sound. No matter how good a man’s verbal intentions, people are convinced only by his trustworthiness, his constant dependability. The man who is honest only part of the time, who is only intermittently reliable, needs to build up habits that are so strong that there can be no exception to his moral conduct. Anything less than this means that his ideal is too low.
Ethical intelligence, the knowledge of right and wrong, is one of the cornerstones of character. To be ignorant of what is right and wrong is to make one’s necessary moral decisions blindly. This is why it is so vital to have association with people of wide experience and sound judgment and fine motives. No one who associates with criminals without counteracting association with those who are clean and pure can hope to escape moral illiteracy and irresponsibility. Nor may he realize how he is drifting. Intelligent familiarity with heroes and heroines, whose achievements have brought great benefits to humanity, is like building a concrete highway through a marsh. Many a person who flounders in the marsh needs only reliable knowledge concerning what is good, honorable, lovely, true and just to have his feet placed upon a rock.
And where do our beliefs come in? Beliefs are not intellectual assets. Beliefs are like the mortar which holds together the rocks of a solid wall.
We are yet in dire need of belief in God, and what God can do for sincere people. We have worshipped man, his achievements, his abilities and his apparent possibilities long enough! With all of man’s achievements - and they are many and notable in the eyes of man - he is still as nothing in the light of his failures.
Our only salvation amid the things we fear and detest - the hatred, the injustice, the avarice, the wanton pride, the heartlessness so apparent in this world of ours - is a greater love of God and reverence for that Name above every other name. Our only hope of truly refined and strengthened character is more intelligent fellowship with our Lord and Master whose life was spotless.
If we shall resolve, honestly, with no reserve, to have no other gods but Jehovah; to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and to join ourselves to the fellowship of Jesus Christ; it may be, it may be that God Himself will come into our lives more completely than we have ever dreamed!
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Dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, September 25, 1938 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, January 19, 1941