What Influences the Shaping of Character?

Good question and to answer it, following is a list of eight things that influence a person’s character but understand this. These things only influence character, they aren’t the final word on who you are or what you become.

Character isn’t decided for you or shaped apart from you. You, the individual, are a determining factor. Your character is shaped and defined by your responses, not fate.

All of these factors do, however, form the melting pot in which bad qualities are brought to the surface and hopefully replaced by the good.

I raise the question about character because Rob Bell in Love Wins suggests there is no immediate transformation at the moment of death from the flawed-you to a perfectly-complete and better you. The implication is, character continues to develop following death, so whatever character development you shirked in this life will be faced in the next.

Therefore, focusing more intently on developing character now – in this life – may be more important than convention suggests. A look at each influence can give us insight on what to expect and how to respond. The first item to consider is:

Divine Decree

Divine Decree, aka, God’s Will.

I hesitate to use the word “Decree” because it is associated with a predetermined, unbending, never changing plan formulated for and imposed on every individual but God’s will, though unchanging, does flex. God does have a plan for each person’s life but it is not detailed to the nth degree and isn’t comprised of every thing that happens to you.

God knows every time you stub your toe – actually before you stub it – but He doesn’t plan these things. They happen, we react, He uses them.

God’s will is firm but not imposed. It is perfect but our ability to follow it is not. His will is constant while we waiver back and forth as the following illustration shows. God’s will must be ratified by human choice. Each person chooses to leave it or pursue it but God doesn’t force it down your throat or manipulate you into following it. When we make plan-warping mistakes God is smart enough and powerful enough to work around it.

Although specific in many ways, God’s will is also general. That is, it applies to everyone in the same way. For example, every person is to love his or her neighbor equally and must cherish THEIR married partner only.

The important point to remember is: [Read more…]

How Far One Descends
Doesn’t Matter
If Character Is The Cream
That Rises To The Top

In my last post I focused on character development in the next life, after death, and my ideas were motivated by Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins. Rob made some interesting remarks about post-death character development for both Christians and non-Christians alike. What he said doesn’t fit comfortably in most theological schemes.

Conventional wisdom says death is the point at which all winning and losing is final. It’s a finish line not a transition, meaning, of course…

The saved will be transformed into a fully complete and finished state of absolute, never changing, never ending perfection and bliss.

And the unrepentant are fixed forever in a state of never ending corruption and condemnation. There is no turning back, looking up, moving forward or thinking again. It is over, finished and done, for everyone.

Love Wins says otherwise.

But post-death issues isn’t the subject of this article. Character development is.

Rob also emphasized the importance of building character in this life, so much so that some accuse him of teaching “salvation by works.”

Don’t believe it. The same people who twist Rob’s ideas about character, emphasize the development of character in their teachings also. The hypocrisy is, other than compiling long lists of things-not-allowed and projecting loads of shame on those who falter, they do very little to make a difference.

And, if death isn’t final and character will continue to develop in the next life then a good question to ask is, “Where will the after-life development begin?” The answer is obvious. It will start in the next life where you left off in this one. If you are 85% at death you’ll start there. If you’re only 25% you’ll start there, so the more you do now the less you will need to do later.

Rob’s ideas seem strange because popular teachings actually work against character development. Eternal security is a good example. Conservative theology teaches that salvation can’t be lost. Any character shortage at death won’t effect your eternal destiny. Your salvation is secure – eternal security. And, as I’ve already mentioned, these same schools of thought imply we will be upgraded to 100% perfection at the moment of death. If that is really true, why bother doing the hard work now?

If the good qualities I don’t develop in this life will be immediately added at death what real motivation is there to do anything other than hold on and wait?

Not too worry. I do believe in eternal security and I’m not suggesting Christians take character issues lightly but what is commonly taught doesn’t encourage follow through. It doesn’t make sense to teach “once-saved-always-saved-no-matter-what” and then suggest that whatever character is lacking will be fully added in the blink of an eye at death. Taken together, these ideas don’t motivate the kind effort required to build character in this life.

It is almost as if we are working against the very thing we want to do.

And we need character, both now and later. Every sensible person wants character, but the only ones who develop it are those who make a deliberate effort.

That’s why Rob’s ideas deserve a hearing. Post-death theologies are rather thin on character-reward issues. Ideas are generalized in the extreme and we are encouraged to have a “hold out and wait for it” mentality.

By the way, a great book on this topic is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. Stephen makes the argument that good habits produce good character. He’s not alone. He defers to many others who said the same thing many times before in many different ways.

So this post is focused on character. Not the character that is shaped in the next life but the character we mold now. And, no, I don’t believe character shaping saves you in the eternal sense of the word but it may save you from a lot of heart ache now and, if Rob is right, in the next life also.

There are three questions to consider: [Read more…]