TOPIC: CHARISMA WITHOUT CHARACTER
Read Matthew 7:15-23
MEMORISE: But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love (2 Peter 1:5-7)
EXPOSITION
Someone might be competent but not compassionate. You may be gifted but not spirit-filled, clever yet a criminal/unclean. There is great gulf between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The former can give you fame, popularity, wealth without heaven (cf.Prov. 18:16), while the latter gives heaven plus the positive additional good thing of life.
Which one would you prefer? The carnal Christian prefers the former because of the recognition and remuneration (financial benefits) involved, but the Spirit-filled, heaven-conscious one is less concerned with those seeming ‘benefits,’ since they are only ephemeral compared to the not incomparable glory to come (Matt. 6:33, Rom. 8:18).
The idea in Matthew 7:21 is that Jesus will tell those who are good at displaying charisma without character to depart His presence, because they are not known of Him. Only the number of people who allow the character of Christ (Christ-likeness) to source out of their lives would be welcomed into the joy of God. The truth is, Charisma without character is equal to chaos in the church. Every believer must realise that there is great difference between doing something well and doing it right. That it is well done does not mean it is rightly done. God is more interested in you doing it right according to His will and purpose than you struggling to do it well the way you suppose.
Charisma is good, but without character, the farthest it can take you is above yourself, after which it would helplessly drop you down to yourself. Whereas, character will take you outside and above yourself, and sustain you there. Character will never stop to carry you until it has taken you to God. When you need charisma most is when it will disappoint you.
Character makes you a sought-after, to both God and man. Our good works without character are mess before God, though they may be celebrated by man. Nevertheless, we need both, and should therefore desire and pray for them, just that we mustn’t exalt charisma over character.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Lord, deliver me from the danger of being charismatic without Christly character.
2. Every necessary ingredient that will make me to be fruitful as Your child, Lord, deposit them in me, now.
3. Pray for every worker/minister/leader in Churches everywhere to be more concerned with their character in relation to Christ than their charisma.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Psalms 115:7 – 119:1; 1 Corinthians 11:23 – 12:10