Virtue may not be a word you hear very much these days, but it’s one worth recovering. On one level, virtues are good moral habits, habits that instill in us moral excellence. What if your walk with God came more naturally to you, like an olympian landing triple axels with ease? Virtues train us in the direction of the Christian life.
On another level, virtues are guideposts, pointing us towards the definition of a “good life,” a definition mired in confusion today. Very few people seem to know what life is all about. Is it about maximizing pleasure? Is it about the pursuit of FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)? Or is it about winning, conquering, and wielding power? What do we live for and why? The virtues help show us the kind of life that pleases God, along with the kind of life that we could be proud of having lived.
Virtues can be traced all the way back to Aristotle and the philosophers, but they really come into their own in the Christian tradition. For the believer, virtues aren’t just badges of merit for good works; Augustine said that virtue is a well-ordered love, an outworking of our love for God. Peter wrote that we should add virtue to our faith (2 Peter 1:5, ESV), and he said that this is both something that God works in us and something that we work at ourselves.
While there are many virtues, seven of them have taken center stage in both ancient and Christian thinking: Prudence (Wisdom), Fortitude (Courage), Temperance (Moderation), Justice, Faith, Hope, and Love. The first four are called the cardinal virtues, or the hinge virtues—they open the door for many other morally excellent qualities in life. The last three are called the theological virtues, because they are rooted more directly in the Christian experience.
I’m looking forward to thinking through the virtues together with you this Lenten Season. Our first sermon is this Sunday, February 22nd. We will introduce the series using 2 Peter 1:3-11. See you then.
