Live A Virtuous Life!
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."
Psalm 19:14
Virtue is defined as a moral excellence; a virtue (or virtues)
is
behavior that evidences your pursuit of moral excellence and
since the fifth century A.D., the
Christian Church has identified
seven cardinal virtues: temperance,
prudence, courage, and
justice, plus the three virtues of faith, hope, and love from
1 Corinthians 13:13.
While the Bible does not contain a list of Christian virtues, Paul’s
list of the fruit of the Spirit is a good place to begin: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control
(Galatians 5:22-23). Virtues, and the opposite, vices, are not passive
manifestations. They are the result of the choices we make to pursue
godliness (moral excellence; Christlikeness) or not. For example, the
fruit of the Spirit appears in lives of those who choose to be cleansed
of sin and be filled with the Holy Spirit (1 John 1:9; Ephesians 5:18).
The psalmist put it well—praying for thoughts, words, and resulting
actions that will please God.
Ask God today for the filling of His Spirit that
the life of Christ may be manifest through
you, leading to a virtuous life.
"So let our works and virtues shine,
to prove the doctrine all divine."
Isaac Watts
