Read: Titus 1: 6-9

6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Reflect:

Many of us stress the importance of good character. We believe that character matters, but how committed are we to pursing the kind of life described by Paul as one “above reproach?”

In After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, N.T. Wright echoes Paul’s view that Christian Character –
“the transforming, shaping, and marking of a life and its habits – will generate the sort of behavior that rules might have pointed toward but which a ‘rule-keeping’ mentality can never achieve. And it will produce the sort of life which will in fact be true to itself – though the ‘self’ to which it will at last be true is the redeemed self, the transformed self, not the merely ‘discovered’ self of popular thought.”

Character is not merely keeping a set of rules and the list generated by Paul in the passage above is not all inclusive, but it does described three general areas in life where character is evaluated: home, public life and the workplace.

Respond:

Over the next few days we’ll look at each area, but let’s begin by evaluating our own lives. Are we living lives that honor God in every aspect of our lives, or are we attempting to compartmentalize and rationalize our daily actions?