Romans 5:3-5
The
formation of character is always an area of struggle within education. It
is much easier to teach skills and knowledge. But it is another story to
teach character. Because having character is not merely knowing the items
in character or storing in memory good things to be done and bad things to be
avoided. Character formation cannot be completed by exams on paper,
whether by multiple choice or fill in the blanks or true or false or even essay
writing. Character formation must involve real life experience. It
must involve meaningful experience for the learners to draw meaning and value
from. This meaningful experience serves as the capital for the process of
internalization so needed in the character formation. Without the
meaningful experience learners may draw from no character formation may occur.
The kind of experience learners undergo will also contribute to the depth of
the character aimed to be formed.
The next contributing
factor is the kind of instruction that goes along with the experience.
First of all, instruction must exist to accompany the process of
internalization. Usually there is a process educators always employ in
order to achieve internalization, which is reflection. Reflection is to
be done carefully in this matter for the appropriate result to be attained.
Reflection can be shallow too if not careful. Reflection can be faked as
well if the instruction is not proper. If the instructor is not wise,
this process will be a waste of time. Worse than wasting time is that
poor instruction may lead to character deformation. All educators agree
that it is imperative to avoid character deformation at all cost.
Now, these two are the
most important ingredients for character formation. We will focus on
these two in this article. To begin with we will discuss Paul’s statement
in Romans 5:3-5. There Paul provides the chain of experiences that leads
to the formation of character. It begins with suffering, which leads to
endurance, and then character is formed afterwards. The end result,
according to Paul, is hope. Hope is given birth by character. The
start with suffering is stunning for modern people. It is quite contrary
to the tendency of the spirit of the age. What modern people want is
comfort. They desire convenience. It is within their blood to avoid
suffering at all cost. Therefore, the wisdom of God spoken through Paul
here is not popular among modern people with modern value. Modern
education is all about the gradual elimination of inconvenience and suffering.
Everything is to be done as painless as possible. While the support for
painless education certainly has its place, it should not dominate the entire
education process. It is true that, according to the brain study, when
there is a threat that may result in pain our brain commonly would resort to
two responses: 1) fight or 2) flight. The less painful option is
obviously flight. Flight is the avoidance of the conflict. Flight
is the most chosen option in our modern day and age. Fight is chosen less
because of the potential pain, even greater pain, that might occur.
Combine this with the establishment of formal education, which focuses less and
less on character formation and conveniently aims more and more on skills and
knowledge, the entire generation is then greatly encouraged to always choose
flight. Always opting for flight is in line with our sinful tendency to
always avoid pain. And so education becomes the most successful vehicle
to change people’s paradigm to put comfort as the goal of life. The most
obvious evidence can be found in the development of technology. For
example in medical sector the use of painkiller is growing so fast in treating
patients. The use of morphine and other kinds of painkiller dominate
medical care. And even the hottest debate in the medical sector in the
past five years is about the proposal to legalize marijuana (medical marijuana)
for use in the medical care. The debate is even in the area of whether to
legalize marijuana for over the counter purchase. The modern people grow
up surrounded by this whole atmosphere of comfort, of flight response rather
than fight, of killing pain instantly. With technology life has become
much more convenient and comfortable. After tasting much comfort it is
hard to let go. All this makes character formation much more difficult in
this era.
The danger of too much
comfort like what we have in our era, especially in the education sector, is
that it leads to character deformation or impairment. The most observable
behavior as the manifestation of this character deformation can be found in
what we often call as entitlement. Modern people who have tasted so much
comfort have somehow internalized entitlement within their disposition.
So when there is inconvenience they would protest as if they are entitled to
convenience. For example, there is a quite wealthy family. The
children of the family have lived in comfort. And since all is provided
for them, they lack the ability to work hard. And then comes a big crisis.
The family riches are quickly depleted. But amid this crisis, the
children could not restraint themselves from their spending habit. Their
tendency is that they are entitled to comfort. A discomfort like cutting
their spending budget is difficult to comprehend for them. So they refuse
to cut their spending budget. This proves their character impairment.
And this kind of impairment is dangerous for the society. If the entire
generation is impaired in this way, nobody would be wise enough to show
restraint when crisis is lurking. Such disposition could devastate the
entire nation.
It is then critical to
resort to this ancient but eternal wisdom that God speaks through Paul.
For attaining character, one must begin with suffering. The word suffering
that Paul uses is “θλῖψις,” which may also mean
persecution, affliction, anguish, trial, trouble, hardship, or distress.
Louw-Nida, in the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on
Semantic Domains, point out that the kind of suffering this word conveys is
direct suffering (Louw-Nida 22:2, Volume 1 p. 242). The word “θλῖψις”
appears 45 times in the New Testament, and five times in Romans. The same
word appears in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) 133 times, with a heavy
concentration in the book of Psalms – 35 times. The meaning of if, which
appears 178 times in the Bible – with Greek OT, consistently expresses the
state of distress or affliction. However, the kind of suffering that is
mentioned in Paul’s letters and particularly in Romans 3:3-5 is the kind of
suffering that does not result from our own mistakes.
We indeed can suffer as
the consequence of our mistakes. For example, we may feel distressed
because we lie to our best friend. Then when our best friend finds out
about our lie, he is mad to us. Thus we suffer his anger. What Paul
is referring to here is not that kind of suffering. What Paul is focusing
here is the kind of suffering that we experience because of our obedience to
God. This is the kind of suffering that befalls us due to our doing good
things. These two kinds of suffering aim the sufferer toward two
different directions. The kind of suffering caused by our own mistakes
would lead to character deformation. Whereas the kind of suffering caused
by our doing good things would lead to character formation. The first
kind of suffering, rarely, might lead to character formation. But a
special action is needed to turn around the deformation process. The
action is called repentance. Repentance is the only action that triggers
the turning point from deformation toward formation. The case of the
adultery of King David and Bathsheba for example leads to a serious character
deformation. If David chose to ignore the warning brought by the Prophet
Nathan, he would seriously deform his character. But instead he chose the
only way that could turn his destiny around toward character formation.
He chose repentance. And thus he received forgiveness. And from
there he rose from the ashes. His character was formed in the Lord.
There is a psychological consequence through this path, however, even if the
way of repentance is chosen. That is the guilty feeling, the regret,
usually haunts the person for quite a long time. Such is the negative
residue of the damage done as a consequence of the mistake committed.
This residue is not only left by the damage done, but also by the accusation of
our conscience. This conscience is built-in within our construct.
Reformed theologians put conscience under the category of common grace.
One of the importance of conscience as God’s common grace is to prevent people
from being as evil as they can be. When conscience accuses the person’s
own action, it afflicts the person severely.
But the second kind of
suffering is different. This is the kind of suffering Paul is speaking
about. The kind of suffering that does not leave a negative residue.
First, there is naturally no damage caused by our good actions. So, no
external negative residue for sure. And secondly, in the natural order,
our conscience does not afflict us when we do good things. The lack of
negative residue makes a huge different in one’s soul and thus in one’s character.
We must be cautious here however. The second kind of suffering may also
potentially damage one’s soul. Every person who experiences suffering is
entering into a disequilibrium state, a disorientation of one’s center, or a
dissonance of the soul. Human is built for the state of equilibrium.
When one enters into a disequilibrium state, his built-in coping mechanism
dictates him to quickly search for the new equilibrium. This is what
commonly is understood as adaptation. And there are two ways of
adaptation. Jean Piaget explained the two ways: 1) Accommodation, and 2)
Assimilation. The negotiation between accommodation and assimilation
naturally takes place within a person in the state of disequilibrium.
Assimilation occurs when
the change is done externally. In assimilation process, the person does
not wish to change, and so he defends his old equilibrium and attempts to
change the external things to fit his equilibrium. Thus it is actually
more like all the others must adjust to him. For example, we desire to
eat watermelon. But the problem is watermelon is big. If we are to
swallow watermelon whole, we would have to change our construct so that we can
take watermelon in one gulp. But to do so would be impossible.
Instead of changing our construct, we change the watermelon. We cut it
into smaller pieces. The watermelon must adjust to us. We can’t and
won’t change, so the watermelon must change. Thus the disequilibrium is
solved by keeping the old equilibrium and manipulating the external things to
fit our equilibrium.
Accommodation is the
exact opposite of assimilation. In accommodation we are the one changing
as disequilibrium strikes us. This happens when we can’t change what is
outside of us. And so in order to satisfy the inevitable search for new
equilibrium, we must change. For example, when winter comes, we can’t
manipulate the climate to suit our temperature desire. Winter season
comes unchallenged by us. It comes and stays. If we can’t stand
winter, we could opt to move out of the area and find a place where there is no
winter. But if we must stay, something else must be done to ourselves.
The cold weather creates discomfort to our body. Our body has its limit
in terms of withstanding temperatures. As the temperature continues to
plummet in the winter, we are disequilibrated if we persist on our old
equilibrium. We risk death if we don’t change. We must do something
to ourselves to cope with the disequilibrium. We must find a new
equilibrium. The most common option is to wear more layers. Though
uncomfortable we must do it in order to solve the disequilibrium. As more
layers are put on, we are finding our equilibrium. When the new
equilibrium is achieved, we found ourselves changed.
Now, if after doing good,
bad things happen to us, pressures mounting up on us, we surely become
disequilibrated. In that state, we are forced to move, or in Piaget’s
term “to transform.” Naturally we seek a new form. This is a
crucial moment. New equilibrium is to be established. The sooner
the better. If disequilibrium takes too long, the soul could be damaged
for good. But taking the wrong path of re-equilibrium can also damage the
soul for good. For example, the person under pressure begins questioning
whether what he did was worth it after all. Then he begins to doubt the
value of his principles. As the pain becomes unbearable for him, he
gradually chooses to let go of his principles in order to avoid the pain.
This is not the path toward character formation, but rather this is the path
toward character deformation. The process of accommodation prompts him to
change himself in such a way as to give up the valuable principles he is
standing on for the sake of fleeing from suffering. The bargain is costly
for him. But often he gets what he wants, avoidance of direct suffering.
This happens to Peter. Peter disowns his Master at the accusations
brought by servant girls. He reacts out of fear. Fear of direct
suffering overwhelms him. So three times he solves his disequilibrium by
way of changing his identity through lies and betrayal. He becomes a
changed man. Devastated, Peter left and wailed. He escapes direct
suffering, but gains internal suffering. He goes back to his old life as
a fisherman. It is his hiding space. He is hiding from himself.
He is on the path of rejecting his new identity that Jesus gives him, a fisher
of man. If he is not quickly restored, he would die in depression.
But Jesus has a grand plan for him. To restore him, Jesus has to work the
most excellent counseling. This is recorded in John 21:15-17.
15 When
they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John,
do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know
that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He
said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said
to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend
my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon,
son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him
the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know
everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
I am not going to discuss about the
detail of this wonderful counsel and reinstatement of Peter that Jesus does.
I have treated it elsewhere. But suffice to say that Peter’s devastating
disequilibrium meets the healing counsel of our Lord. Then Peter’s life
is re-equilibrated. The purpose is to bring Peter to the proper equilibrium.
Jesus is truly the Wonderful Counselor (cf. Isaiah 9:6). Jesus reorders
Peter’s life. Peter then re-embraces his true identity, a fisher of man.
This event is the reference point for the importance of proper counsel for
those who are in the disequilibrium state.
When Paul refers to suffering as the starting point for character formation
here, he says that he rejoices in suffering. Very rarely people rejoice
in suffering. Actually, almost nobody would rejoice in suffering.
Normally people dislike suffering. They hate suffering. They will
be depressed if they have to go through suffering. But this time Paul
says that he rejoices in his suffering. This is a contradiction to the
common response. There is a secret hidden here that Paul is opening.
The secret is that suffering leads to endurance. “θλῖψις” leads to “ὑπομονή.”
In BDAG (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian
Literature, “ὑπομονή”
means “the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty, patience,
endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance.”[1]
Suffering has the potential to produce this wonderful trait. This trait
can’t be produced apart from suffering. Suffering is the only door to the
formation of this honorable trait. And again, I have to remind all of us
that this suffering is not the suffering as the consequence of our own mistakes.
No, this is the kind of suffering that is inflicted upon us as we do good
things.
Patience is a difficult virtue to attain, as well as endurance, fortitude,
steadfastness, and perseverance. In the Reformed theology we learn about
the Perseverance of the Saints as part of the famous TULIP acronym. TULIP
is the summary of the theological standpoint that is distinctive of the
Calvinistic branch of the Reformed church. TULIP acronym is actually
taken from the synod meeting of the Reformed church in Holland
in 1618-1619 held in the Dordrecht city in the Netherlands.
The synod meeting produced a document that is called “The Canons of Dort.”
This document is one of the confessional standards of many Reformed churches
that are descended from the Hervormerde Kirk in Holland. Canons of Dort
is one of the so called “three forms of unity” acknowledged in many reformed
churches. Now, the original Canons of Dort document was designed to
refute the five doctrines coined by Jacob Armenius of the University of Leiden.
TULIP is not the original ordering of the Canons of Dort. But the acronym
helps a lot of reformed people to remember the crucial doctrine of election
contained in it. T stands for Total Depravity. U stands for
Unconditional Election. L stands for Limited Atonement. I stands
for Irresistible Grace. And P stands for Perseverance of the Saints.
T is the condition of man after the Fall. ULI is 100% divine work.
P is the work of the Holy Spirit prompting the sanctification process in which
man is actively working alongside the Holy Spirit.
Perseverance surely must have patience. Perseverance surely must have
endurance, and fortitude, and steadfastness. When someone perseveres, he
must be patient, he also must be able to endure, and be fortitude (or be
courageous in difficulties), and also to stand steadfastly (or unwavering –
constant). The sanctification process takes time to produce the desired
qualities. It is often tiring for the person going through it. This
is caused by the constant temptations through the flesh as the result of the
Fall. The training of the body and soul of the redeemed requires a great
deal of consistency, endurance, restraint, and strength. This is not the
kind of the strength of the muscle of our physical body. But this is the
kind of strength that flows in our soul as expressed in the will. The
will must be strong enough to desire the success of the training.
Obedience is the goal to be achieved in the training. Sinful nature by
default opposes obedience to God. Instead, sinful nature spells
disobedience to God. It wants autonomy. It desires to govern the
self apart from God. It wishes to be God himself. And so the will
of the redeemed must be in tune with God so as to desire what God desires as
well. As sinful people we have acquired learning of the sinful habits.
The first order of business in this training is the unlearning of the sinful
habits. And it takes unwavering will to shed the sinful habits. A
habit, once acquired and internalized, is not easy to let go. A habit is
sweet. It is comfortable for the body and soul of the person.
Sinful habit corresponds perfectly with the sinful nature. The sinful
nature does not want to let go of the sinful habits. A battle must be done
in order to get rid of the sinful habits. A battle within. This is
the gist of the struggle that Paul goes through that he explains in Romans 7.
He says it in Romans 7:15-20:
15 For
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the
very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I
agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no
longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For
I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the
desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For
I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who
do it, but sin that dwells within me.
This constant battle within drains our
spirit. On our own we cannot sustain it. Left to ourselves we can’t
win this battle. But Paul proclaims it in Romans 8:1-4:
1There
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in
Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God
has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit.
We have won in Christ Jesus. With
this assurance we may endure the ongoing battle. Because the end result
has been determined that we won’t be condemned. Jesus has won the battle
for us. Our struggle is ongoing for we love God more than anything.
Our desire to be like Christ overcomes our weaknesses. So our will to
obey the Lord is pleasing in the sight of God. Our sanctified will
prompts us to endure the pain and suffering caused by the temptations and
sinful nature at work in our mortal flesh. This ordeal produces
endurance.
Like a marathon runner perseveres in the training to run 5k marathon.
This kind of training is not achieved in a day. It takes years and
patience. The pain is at times excruciating. But the marathon
runner keeps going. He endures the pain as his eyes are focused toward
the goal – to win the race. The more he bears the pain, the more his
endurance is enlarged. His capacity to endure gets bigger. And this
is how the pain is overcome by the great will of the person undergoing the
training.
With the proper counselor, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ Himself, Christians
going through suffering will indeed produce endurance. No complaints.
No anger toward God. For they know that their sinful nature must be put
to death. And it is impossible to do so in practicality except through
the kind of suffering that God has permitted His people to go through. To
remind us, the kind of suffering here is the suffering for doing good.
The suffering that is the result of desiring good. The suffering that we
experience for desiring to obey the Lord. The endurance that is produced
then is the endurance to continue in doing good, in desiring what is good, in
desiring to obey the Lord despite the pain inflicted upon us. For our
eyes are focused on God Himself, who has saved us in His love and sacrifice.
As we are trained through the painful experience set for us, we are formed to
become like His Son. Through it we develop a great capacity of endurance.
As the endurance is getting mature, it in the end produces character.
When the good habits have been trained in us, battling with the sinful habits,
uprooting the sinful habits, unlearning the sinful habits, we internalize the
good habits. The disequilibrium that shakes our comfort zone has now been
replaced by re-equilibrium that leads to the right equilibrium through the
counsel of the Holy Spirit. And the right equilibrium is when we become
like Jesus Christ. The practicality of it is when the character of Christ
is formed and produced in us. For sure, the one character that is coveted
by God from eternity is the character of obedience. His own Son obeys the
Father completely even to the point of death on the cross.
Christ Jesus, 6 who,
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to
be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found
in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:
5b-8)
This is the character that God wants to
be formed in the heart and life of every child of God. This is the
manifestation of faith. Faith is unseen. It is too easy for people
to fake faith. When life is good, many professing Christians easily
proclaim that they have faith in God. But when difficult times come,
faith demands to be manifested through obedience. Obedience is the action
or the work of faith. The two can’t be separated. That is why James
speaks of faith without work is like body without spirit, which is dead.
James gives two examples of faith being manifested through work. One
example is Abraham. The other is Rahab. Both of them exhibited
obedience as the manifestation of their faith. James 2:21-26 records:
21 Was
not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on
the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his
works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and
the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted
to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You
see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And
in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she
received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For
as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is
dead.
Brothers and sisters, this is the
center of character formation. No character can be produced without
suffering. No character can be formed without endurance through suffering.
This is the only path toward character formation. Character is not
produced through memorizing facts or knowledge of the characteristics of good
characters, virtues, and all. Character is shaped through the real experience
of suffering that produces endurance. Christian character can only be
shaped through having faith in God amid suffering. The counsel of Jesus
and the Holy Spirit are at our disposal provided for us free of charge.
In the midst of suffering we enter into the disequilibrium state. It is
easy in that state for us to give up, to exhibit bad behaviors, to acquire bad
habits. But the counsel of God will re-center us toward the right
equilibrium. The trait we need to exhibit through it is endurance.
Enduring the pain as we believe in God that He is a good God who will make
everything good. Paul summarizes in Romans 8:28: “28 And
we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for
those who are called according to his purpose.” Even
though it doesn’t seem like it from our limited view. Just like Abraham
obeying God by going to the mountain to sacrifice Isaac. Obedience is
then formed. Christian character is then produced. Once the proper
character is formed, we have arrived at the equilibrium state.
Now, we are not God. So we ought not devise any plan for our children or
students to experience suffering, even with the purpose to form character.
Our primary duty is to provide counsel, especially when our children and
students are going through suffering. Being counselors we must completely
follow Christ, the Wonderful Counselor, and the Holy Spirit, who is the Another
Counselor. Meaning, we can’t use any other principles beside that is
written in the Scripture. Our counsel must point to Christ. The
goal of the Christian education is to disciple everyone called. And the
discipling process is to form obedience in their hearts. Important to be
said here is that as mentor we need to model the kind of obedience to God
through our life. Our disciples will see our character and imitate.
As counselor we can’t just rely on logic, or systematic lecture, or
story-telling, but most importantly is through modeling the desired characters
themselves for the disciples to see and experience. Such is the most
effective counseling.
Second, we may design a
plan that provides opportunities for our children or students to do good works.
This will form in the hearts of the disciples the tendency to do good things.
Every now and then, inevitably, suffering may tag along when we do good things.
When that opportunity comes, we provide counsel for them so they may be
mentored carefully as they go through the dreaded disequilibrium state.
This will prompt them to enter into the re-equilibrium state. And never
forget to continue to pray and submit to God Himself, for He is the true
counselor. It is our duty as counselors to teach our disciples to pray
and submit to God. For we are limited in our capacity to mentor and help.
But God is able to do much more the things that we can’t do. In the end,
He will lead them into the perfect equilibrium state that He has designed for
them.
As we provide these two
things, in any setting, be it informal, non-formal, or formal education, we
have then worked properly in the area of character formation.
[1]
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2000),
1039.
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