Building on redeeming points

Through counselling and interactions with different people I have come to the conclusion that both good and bad live together in every character. No-one is entirely good and no-one is entirely bad. No matter how good one is, there is always some bad thing that mars  character.
 A man may be very gentle and understanding in the public, yet he is also very short-tempered towards his wife and kids. A woman may be very nice and respectful to her pastor and boss, but may also be very rude and disrespectful towards her own husband.
 James, the Lord’s brother, must have seen evil and good dwelling together in the life of believers in order for him to say, “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.  Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:9, 10).
Though James did not expect both blessing and cursing to come out of the same tongue, the fact is it was happening. In the very same chapter (Matthew 16) that Peter is greatly praised by the Lord for rightly identifying Him as the Son of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he is also rebuked by the same Lord for trying to distract Christ under the influence of Satan.
Our goal in all our toil in reading the Bible, praying, fellowshipping with others is to reach Christian or spiritual maturity.  Ephesians 4:13 pinpoints this goal: “Till we all come …unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children…” A perfect man here refers to a spiritually mature person, not  a faultless person.  Children, in this verse, refer not to physical little babies but to spiritually immature believers. A spiritually mature person has both good and bad attributes.  A childish person also has both good and bad habits. But the difference is that a spiritually mature person has more good in their character than bad.
The problem to be resolved here is that of seeing yourself as entirely bad. Yes, you are not perfect but you are not evil. You are bad in the main but there is some good in you. And that good in you is your redeeming point. You may have many weaknesses but you still have some strength in you; and that strength is your redeeming point.
By redeeming point I mean that good thing that makes you free of blame or brings you back into favour. It is that good in you that makes the bad in you slightly less bad. In our opening text Jehoshaphat king of Judah entered into an unholy alliance with Ahab king of Israel. Unknown to him God had planned for Ahab to die in battle because of his perpetual disobedience to God. So when he joined forces with Ahab, he was nearly killed in the battle. After escaping death by a whisker, a prophet said to Jehoshaphat, “Because of what you have done, the Lord is very angry with you. Even so, there is some good in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles throughout the land, and you have committed yourself to seeking God.”  Jehoshaphat had so angered God that he deserved death but his redeeming feature was that previously in his reign he had destroyed all forms of idol worship, and was a God-seeker. It was this redeeming feature that caused God to spare his life in his time of weakness.
You may be a very bad person but you know you have some inherent good in you. You are a drunkard, but you love your family. You are a prostitute but you have a deep desire to be set free and serve God. You may be a terrible taskmaster but you know you pay your employees what is fair and just. You are not yet born again but you have a firm belief in the existence of a good God. True, you have weaknesses, and who does not have, but you also have your strengths.
The point is to learn to magnify your redeeming points. Put your best foot forward. Connect with other people on their positive points. Someone said, “Surely in the worst character there are some little faint lines of good and why not imitate God and make most of these?” Your business as a Christian is not to count your faults and those of others. Doing that leads to despair, discouragement and despondency. Worse still, it can lead you into believing that you have committed an unpardonable sin.
For you to grow into spiritual maturity, make it your business to find your redeeming points and those of others. With your current redeeming points as your firm foundation, begin to build up your character and you will soon find that you have more good than bad in you.
This is the wonderful process that makes us Christ-like.
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