In a handful of places throughout the Bible, an individual is singled out by the text and described as a particularly respected or upright person: Job was the “greatest of all the men of the east;” Joseph found “success in everything he did,” and Daniel “possessed an extraordinary spirit.” What did these men do to merit these glowing descriptions… and what can we do do emulate them?

According to Charles Swindoll in this Day by Day devotional, what set these “great men” of the Bible apart was not luck, good fortune, cleverness, or inborn talent, but something much simpler:

What did these men have in common? Perfection? These men were far from perfect. Easy times? Hardly. How about slick rhetoric? Wrong again. What they had in common was character—high moral character. They walked securely; they didn’t fear being “found out.” [….]

We have every right to expect of ourselves and others virtue, dignity, self-mastery, resoluteness, determination, strength of will, moral purity, and personal integrity—in public and in private. The fact that many fail to live up to the minimal daily requirement does not change the ideal.

If men like Job and Joseph and Daniel could demonstrate character in the worst of times, you and I can do so now. And because we can, we must.

Do you consider yourself to be a person of character… and would the people you interact with each day describe you that way? What can you do to develop the type of character that set the heroes of the Bible apart from their contemporaries?

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Bible Study, Devotional, Lifestyle, People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.