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JU Good Character: A look at what Character is Print E-mail
Written by Jesus University   
Preparation:
  • Scripture readings from: Proverbs 13:5, Proverbs 10:9, Proverbs 11:25, Proverbs 29:23, Proverbs 14:29, Proverbs 17:17, Proverbs 21:13
  • Spend some time in prayer for the lesson and each student—that God will open their hearts and minds and teach them from His Word.

Introduction:
What we do today shapes who we will be tomorrow. A wise decision will move us towards becoming the person God wants us to be while a poor decision will move us further away. What is character? How does it affect our life? What can we do today to move us toward becoming a person of good character? In this session, we will take a look at and hopefully answer all of these questions. Realizing the importance of having good character and striving to have good character will impact the rest of your life!! Discuss:
  • What is character? (This is a term that is difficult to define. Have the students come up with their own definitions and bounce some ideas off each other before looking at these definitions.) Dictionary Definition-moral excellence and firmness Although there is nothing wrong with that dictionary definition, it does not say anything about where our morals come from and has no biblical foundation. In his book Louder than Words, Andy Stanley has an excellent definition that is biblically sound-“the will to do what is right as defined by God, regardless of personal cost.”
  • What are characteristics of someone with good character? (There are lots of answers to this...we will be looking at several in more detail, but the answers are almost endless.)
  • What effect do you think your character has on the rest of your life? (Don’t answer this question yet...just let them think about and discuss it, but don’t come to a final conclusion yet...the activity will help to make this point)

Activity:
Professors’ Note: This is an activity that you have maybe used in the past (or at least one that is similar to this one) but it helps to make the point that even the smallest amount of contamination destroys the entire batch. Just as a seemingly minor “flaw” in our character can destroy almost every part of our lives.

Give a student the bottle of water and allow him/her to examine it. Ask if it looks OK to drink. Tell the students there really isn’t anything wrong with the water it is just water that your dog drank out of this morning (or if you don’t have a dog give the name of person you know who has a dog). Or if you feel like being slightly mean allow the student to take a drink out of the water before telling them that. Ask the students if they still think the water is OK to drink. When they hopefully say that it would be disgusting to drink water that a dog has been drinking out of, ask them why….at least 99.9% of what is in the bottle is pure water. Probably less than .1% is dog saliva, so if the majority of the water is good, why isn’t all of it good?
  • How can this illustration be compared to the impact that our character has on our life?
  • Why is it important for us to be careful about what we think about, what we say and what we do?
Say: Just like the entire bottle of water is now considered damaged goods because it had a small amount of dog saliva in it, our lives can be damaged goods when our character causes us to fall short of what God expects of us. Even if it seems like it is minor or unimportant, a flaw in our character will eventually permeate every area of our lives and will cause problems in our relationships, in our work at school or at a job and many other areas.

As a further example, you can place a drop or two of food coloring into one of the bottles and further illustrate how, just one drop or just one error in judgment is all that it takes to make what was once pure damaged goods.

Digging Deeper:
Say: Earlier we talked about what some qualities of someone with good character are; now let’s look at some specific qualities that the Bible emphasizes as being important to have. We will start by looking at some verses out of the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is a great book that gives very wise and practical instruction in how to live our daily lives. There are certainly many more characteristics that we could look at, but for time’s sake we will only look at seven. There are also many other verses that support Christians striving to have these qualities that you can have the students look up, this is simply one proverb.

One very important thing to note: always remember that it is through our relationship with Christ that we desire to DO or are able to achieve any of these things...with our own power we can do nothing—John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

  • Honesty—Proverbs 13:5 “The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.”
  • Integrity—Proverbs 10:9 “The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.”
  • Generosity—Proverbs 11:25 “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”
  • Humility—Proverbs 29:23 “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
  • Patience—Proverbs 14:29 “A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.”
  • Loyalty—Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
  • Compassion—Proverbs 21:13 “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out not be answered.”

Side Story:
Now is a great time for you as a professor to share something from your own life that helps to personalize the importance of having good character. For example, a time when you (or someone you know) did the right thing even when it was difficult or a time that you didn’t and you wish that you had. Here are a couple of quotes to supplement your personal story.

  • “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way, the suddenness of the provocation does not make me ill-tempered; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. .........C.S. Lewis
  • The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back. ................Abigail Van Buren
  • Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. ......Frank Outlaw

Application
Have each student make a list of character qualities that they feel that it is important to have. They may use the ones that you looked at earlier or they may come up with some of their own. Make sure that they make it personal. Now, have them look at each quality and honestly ask themselves whether they have that quality and whether what they do on a daily basis helps them to develop it or not. If their actions throughout the day are not helping them to develop these qualities, ask them what they need to change in order to have that happen.

Please note: Make sure that it is clear to the students that God’s love is not conditional on whether or not we do these things. Of course He desires the best for us and He knows that doing these things is what is best for us, but His love is already there and unconditional. It is through a relationship with Christ that we will desire to do these things more and more and we will be able to succeed only with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Close it out:
Say: Your character is what helps to shape every decision you make and every action that you take. It will be evident to those who truly know you (sure, you can fake it for a while, but eventually it will become apparent to those you spend time with). The thing to remember is that if you try to make a list of characteristics that you would like to have and attempt to do it on your own, you will become incredibly frustrated. Once again (and I don’t think this can be emphasized enough), it is through a relationship with Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit that you will be successful in your attempts at being a person of good character. God wants you to first get to know Him and from there He will slowly begin to work on your character. Be patient! This is something that you, with Christ’s help, will be working on for the rest of your life.

Let’s look at one more Scripture that will hopefully encourage us as we realize that we don’t do this on our own: It is Galatians 2:20 (taken from The Message). It talks about how our old self-centered (sinful) self has been nailed to the cross and we now live by the faith in the Son of God. As Christians, Christ now lives in us and enables us to be what we are not able to be by ourselves!!

“Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not ‘mine,’ but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Pray together and for each other!
 
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