on character (part 1 of 2)

the theological bases for breaking and changing habits

introduction  

Scott Bullard, a writer from whom I drew inspiration for this morning’s reflections, relates some of his experience playing gridiron football in high school. I could relate to his story as I too played gridiron in high school. You may find this a little hard to believe, but I played the positions of centre and cornerback (of course, you may not have any idea what I’m talking about). While my team was not particularly good, I did once win a “Player of the Game” award.

As I’m sure it is the case with most sports, athletes must be in their top physical condition, and coaches seem to often take a malicious pleasure in putting their charges through their paces. Bullard describes his least favourite aspect of the gruelling exercise regime that he endured:

“Two-a-days” —what players and coaches call those brutal preseason practices that take place every morning and afternoon under the hot August sun— were my least favourite aspect of the sport [of gridiron football]. Removed from the lights and the fans and the cheerleaders, these practices were designed to build strength and endurance through a steady diet of sit-ups, push-ups, running, and tackling under the hot North Carolina sun. The sit-ups were the most brutal for me. We were always challenged to see who could do the most sit-ups —at the end of practice! During this portion of practice, our coach would always utter the words that have remained with me: “People —football doesn’t build character. Football reveals character.”

How interesting it is that this coach seemed to believe that the strains of training and the stresses of actual game-play reveals what athletes are actually made of, what is their most basic nature, stripped of any pretensions.

But what can sport reveal about a person? Two possibilities come to mind. First, sport reveals which athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to win, determining who is able to put in the most effort. Second, sport reveals who has the most desire to win, the determination, passion, or heart.

Actually, I don’t think that coach’s principles are too far from the revelation contained in the Bible. I believe that we will find that human nature is comprised of not only what we do but of what we desire, and that God offers to transform our desires so as to transform our actions.

Exodus 20:17

Our scripture focus this morning is Exodus 20:17. This is a little unusual for me because I usually like to choose a whole passage. I believe that appreciating the context of a passage is important for understanding fully the messages that the Spirit intends for us. Yet, in this case, I think that the context is a little distracting.

Our scripture focus is the final two instructions of the Ten Commandments, which reveal for us God’s intentions for our lifestyle. The problem is that the first part of the Commandments deal primarily with what we are to do and not to do: do not make an idol, do not misuse the name of God, do keep the Sabbath, do honour your parents, do not murder, steal, commit adultery, or perjure yourself. These are all actions, behaviours, things that we do or do not do.

In and of themselves, these are good instructions, and we would do well to train ourselves in behaving these ways. But we too easily become focussed on our behaviour —whether we are doing the right things and not doing the wrong things— that we neglect to pay attention to the order of the transformation that God makes possible in us: “be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God” (Romans 12:2), which is another way of saying, “get your desires right, then you will act rightly”.

¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour (Exodus 20:17).

“You shall not covet [...] anything that belongs to your neighbour.” To covet something is to yearn to possess something belonging to someone else, to desire something that does not belong to you. Where is the harm in desire? Desire does not actually involve doing anything wrong, does it? Actually, yes it does, in a sense, because a thought is still a mental behaviour. Jesus certainly recognised this complexity when he stated that, “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). In this case, Jesus is revealing that he understands the essential relationship between desire and action, and that he sees no difference between them.

To better understand desire and how to deal with it as God intends, we need to go back to the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start.

our basic nature

As opposed to theories based on notions of tabula rasa, that children are born without individuality, contemporary research and anecdotal evidence support the contention that babies are indeed born with an unique nature, that is a predisposition to behave in certain ways. This is revealed very quickly even despite the small repertoire of survival skills with which we are born: for instance, a newborn may suck greedily or ‘with the flow’. This distinction alone reveals that there are differences in the basic nature, or “character”, of newborns.

In the womb, our nature is formed as an amalgam of our mother’s and our father’s DNA, yet believers in the revelation of the Bible have to accept that God is intimately involved in our creation, that we are an expression of his creativity (Jeremiah 1:5; Job 10:11; Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139:13-15a).

Unfortunately, we are born into a sinful world, and quickly suffer the consequences of the influence of this sinful environment on our nature. We may start very good, but very rapidly are we encouraged to desire and act in a way that contravenes the laws of God, the laws that give life (Genesis 1:31). Scott Bullard describes the situation very well when he highlights that

The Greeks recognized early on that there is an element of “moral luck”; if you were born into a family that trained you poorly (morally or otherwise), you have habits to break and new habits that need to be formed. The Greeks claimed that certain things were nearly impossible to overcome entirely. This, combined with the claim of modern psychology that most of our habits are formed by the time we are three years old, paints a dim picture for the malformed person [...]

The environment in which we are born, and in which we grow, conspires with our basic nature by influencing our desires to form habits, which may be expressed in positive ways or negative ways, in holiness or sinfulness.

Just this week, a fantastic illustration of the negative influence of one’s environment was portrayed on the television show Lost. Hurley is the character that everybody loves, but Hurley is quite obese. We found out this week that Hurley’s eating disorder arose when his father walked out on him and his mother. As he did so, his father gave him a chocolate bar with words that easily initiated Hurley’s tendency to comfort-eat.

becoming who we were meant to be

Habits are patterns of behaviour that require little thought; they consistently satisfy our desires such that we give very little thought to the desires nor to the behaviours. I, for example, compulsively clean my ears. Despite the danger to my ears, it feels good to me to have clean ears. Also, I too am a comfort-eater like the character Hurley and like Fergie, the Duchess of York. What other examples can we think of? Perhaps someone is a gossip because it makes them feel more important when they belittle the achievements of others. Or, someone is dissatisfied with aspects of her own life, so she complains easily when things do not go her way. Perhaps someone has developed an harmless addiction to alcohol or drugs, to masturbation or pornography. How insidious is sin that a simple and meaningless behaviour can so easily become a distracting and sinful habit?

Again, Scott Bullard so admirably points out that

The Bible [...] proclaims that, through encounters with the one and living God, conversion to a new form of life is possible. It is the Son who lived out this alternative form of life in the flesh, and it is the Son who assures us that the Holy Spirit will always be there to empower us to live as Jesus lived.

Habits are easy to form, yet difficult to change. They do not necessarily represent our essential nature, created by God, but they can certainly become a sinful and corrupt expression of that nature. While our outward behaviour reveals the desires which guide it, after salvation, the Spirit guides us in righteousness, giving us inspiration and power to overcome and change those desires (Ezekiel 11:19-20; John 14:26; 16:8-13).

Saint Thomas Aquinas called well-directed habits “virtues” and misdirected habits “vices”. For Aquinas, habits are either good or bad, and we all have them, so they are crucial. The goal is to align desire and action. Being “moral,” then, is not overcoming our desires, but changing them so that when we act characteristically, we act well, in a way that is faithful.

conclusion

The Commandments on which we are focussing today provide us with insight into desire. Because they tell us what not to desire, they give us a glimpse into how our lives can be different than they are. We can and must escape the “patterns of this world” (Romans 12:2) so that we can discover and live the “life abundant” (John 10:10) that Jesus promised was possible, the life that he promised he would give to us.

These commandments reveal that it is not enough to just change our behaviours; we must change our desires. Even after our salvation, we suffer the consequences of our habits because of the nurturing of sinfulness without and within; yet, through spiritual discipline, we can remove the layers of distraction so as to train ourselves to walk in perfection (Matthew 5:48).

These final two commandments teach us to desire appropriately, and to thus build the specifically Christian character that is to be revealed in our lives (Galatians 5:22-25). Get these two commandments right and the rest of the commandments will be so much easier.

sermon delivered by Ian Forest-Jones
at Hurstville Church of Christ
on Sunday, 6 May 2007 at 10am
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