Last week, I met with a couple of friends for Bible Study at "810 The Sports Zone" in Leawood. The food was excellent, and the time of diving into the 1 Peter was phenomenal. One of the topics of discussion for the day was character, and where it can be seen in our lives. In 2006, J. Countryman published The Quest For Character by John MacArthur. The following is an excerpt from the first chapter, A Humble Spirit, referring to the Pharisees and the Sermon on the Mount. I trust the chiallenge will be as strong with you as it has been for me.

"In the minds of Jesus' listeners, the Pharisees epitomized the highest level of personal righteousness it was possible to attain on earth. Jesus must have stunned the whole crowd when He said all of that wasn't good enough. But the Pharisees' approach to seeking God's approval was all wrong. They were trying to manufacture their own brand of righteousness. In other words, everything they did was tainted with self-righteousness. Instead of making them humble, their religion made them proud and haughty. Jesus' sermon specifically condemned that kind of self-righteousness. He therefore starts with a blessing for broken people who recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' (Matthew 15:3).

The virtue He is desribing is true spiritual humility. It is a recognition that we have nothing whatsoever that would commend us to God. We are not spiritually affluent. We are not fundamentally good. We are not in any way spiritually self-sufficient. We are fallen sinners in desperate need of a Savior. We are spiritual paupers.

Genuine character starts with that realization. It's a hard and humbling truth to face squarely. but if you try to divorce even the finest of human traits from basic spiritual humility, all the actual virtue is gone. The trait becomes a form of self-righteousness.

If you don't sense your own spiritual poverty, I want to encourage you to meditate on the majesty of God's law and the reality that even one broken commandment would be enough to condemn a person. Scripture says, 'Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all' (James 2:10).

Contemplate that truth while realizing that everyone one of us has transgressed God's law not once but countless times, and you will begin to grasp why humility before God is the first and most essential virtue. Our spiritual need is far greater than any of us truly realizes. But if you can begin to grasp the idea, it ought to impress on your heart a deep sense of spiritualual poverty. At our very best, we ar nothing more than spiritual beggars. And that, Jesus said, is the first step toward the kind of character God can bless."