Year 5, Day 125: Job 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

I think that the last sentence above is my favorite definition of the word character.  Character is what you do when nobody is looking.  Character is what you do when you can get away with anything.  Character is who you are when the only person there to hold you accountable is yourself.

Job is a man of character.  Look at the laundry list of reasons he gives as to how his righteousness shines in his life.  Mind you, this is not a works-based righteousness argument.  Our righteousness should shine before mankind not so that we are saved but as a demonstration of our salvation.  This is what Job is saying here in this passage.

Job has cared for the widow and the orphan.  Job has treated those under him with respect and compassion.  Job has cared for the earth and has been careful of the demands that he has placed upon it.  Job has kept himself sexually pure and honest.  I can keep going, but this is a great report!

Of course Job isn’t innocent of wrongdoing.  Who among us is without sin?  But Job is a man of character.  On the last day that we hear Job’s words, it is refreshing to hear him finally come back to what matters most of all.  He is righteous before his God.

After all, isn’t that why this whole book started in the first place?  Job is righteous before God.  Satan could do his worst, but Job remained faithful and righteous.  Amen.

<><