Character Traits

[Soyeong]

To become a character trait means to be someone who practices that trait and it would be contradictory to for someone to become a character trait apart from becoming someone who practices that trait. We become character traits through faith that we ought to practice them apart from having practiced them as though they were earned as a wage. For example, to become courageous means to become someone who practices courageousness, it would be contradictory to be courageous apart from becoming someone who practices courageousness, and the way to become courageous is through faith apart from having practiced courageousness. It can be the case that someone is not courageous in the present moment if they do not currently have faith that they ought to be courageous in spite of all of the times that they have previously practiced courageousness, so again the way to become a trait in the present moment is through faith apart from what we have previously done, but becoming a character trait is not apart from becoming someone who practices that trait through faith.

The same is true of righteousness, which is the point Paul was making in Romans 3:28-31, where we become righteous through faith apart having practiced righteousness as through it were earned as a wage, but where becoming righteous is not apart from becoming someone who practices righteousness because the faith by which we are declared righteous does not abolish our need to practice righteousness in obedience to God's law, but rather our faith upholds it.

 

[Diserner]

I like your emphasis on grace.... many saints of old have told us, that failure lays the path to God's grace.

How do you view the fruit of the Spirit?

Sometimes our fruit can seem very small... it is a case of quality over quantity.

 

[Soyeong]

I like your emphasis on grace.... many saints of old have told us, that failure lays the path to God's grace.

How do you view the fruit of the Spirit?

Sometimes our fruit can seem very small... it is a case of quality over quantity.

The fruits of the Spirit are God's character traits/aspects of His nature. The Bible often uses the same terms to describe the character of God as it does to describe the character of God's law, which is because it is God's instructions for how to practice those traits, such as with it being holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12), or with justice, mercy, and faithfulness being weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). The gift of eternal life is the experience of knowing God and Jesus (John 17:3) and the way to do that is by experiencing His character traits by obeying His law, which is why the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey it (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

In Genesis 18:19, God's way is the way in which he expresses character traits, such as righteousness and justice, in Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he might know Him and Israel too, and in 1 Kings 2:1-3, God made His way known through His law. In Jeremiah 9:3 and 9:6, they did not know God and refused to know Him, because in 9:13, they had forsaken His law, while in 9:24, those who know God know that He delights in practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in all of the earth, so delighting in practicing those and God's other character traits is the way to know Him, and the way to know Jesus because he is the exact image of God's character (Hebrews 1:3). Furthermore, in 1 John 2:6, those who say that they know Jesus, but don't obey his commands are liars, in 1 John 3:4-6, those who continue to practice sin in transgression of God's law have neither seen nor known him, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so knowing God and Jesus is the goal of the law, which is eternal life, which is why Jesus said that the way to enter eternal life is by obeying it (Matthew 19:17, Luke 10:25-28).

So God's law is His instructions for how to practice His character traits, not for how to become them, but rather the way to become them is through faith alone, and become them means to become someone who practices them through the same faith. God's law is truth (Psalms 119:142) and the way to have faith is by becoming someone who practices truth.