The Inner Man

Character Before Charisma "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

— 1 Samuel 16:7 When the prophet Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint a new king over Israel, he saw Eliab, the oldest son — tall, strong, handsome, the kind of man we would quickly call a leader. Samuel said to himself, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord." But God corrected him.

"Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:6–7).

Brother, this is where true spiritual leadership begins: not in your arms, not in your wallet, not in your title, not in your degree, not in your clan, but in your heart. God will not use a man whose heart is rotten, no matter how impressive he looks on the outside. And God will use a man whose heart is right, no matter how unimpressive he looks on the outside.

We live in an age that worships charisma. The loud preacher draws the crowd. The flashy businessman is envied. The man with the biggest car is respected. But God is not impressed with any of this. God is looking for character.

What is character? Character is who you are when no one is watching. Character is what you do when the lights are off, when you are alone in a hotel room in a different city, when your phone is in your hand and no one will ever know, when the money is on the table and the accountant has left the room. Character is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22–23) — grown slowly in the soil of your heart over years of walking with Jesus.

The apostle Paul, when he listed the qualifications for an elder in the church, said almost nothing about gifting and almost everything about character. Read 1 Timothy 3 slowly. An elder must be "above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money" (1 Timothy 3:2–3). Notice: able to teach appears only once in this long list. The rest is character. If you cannot keep your temper at home, you are not qualified to lead anywhere else.

The same pattern appears in Titus 1, where Paul says an elder must be "blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient" (Titus 1:6). God looks at how a man is doing as a husband and father before He considers him for leadership in the church. Your home is your first ministry. If your character is not being formed there, it is not being formed at all.

Consider the life of Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda. He was born in 1922 in Acholi, in the north of our country. He was converted as a young schoolteacher and was deeply shaped by the East African Revival. What made him great was not that he had a famous name or a powerful position — both of those came later. What made him great was that for decades before he ever stood before Idi Amin, he was walking with Jesus, confessing his sin, loving his wife Mary Florence, and raising his children in the fear of the Lord. By the time Amin tried to intimidate him in 1977, Luwum had the inner man of a lion. He said, "I can see the hand of God in this. Even if I die, I will not be afraid." When his moment came, he did not flinch, because his heart had been prepared long before in secret.

Charisma can carry you to the top. Only character can keep you there.

The apostle Peter understood this. In 2 Peter 1, he gives us a beautiful chain of virtues: "make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self- control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love" (2 Peter 1:5–7). Notice the verb: "make every effort."

Character does not happen by accident. It is cultivated, like a garden, by daily labor in prayer, in the Word, in confession, in obedience.

Augustine of Hippo, the great North African father of the Church, spent the first years of his adult life chasing sinful pleasures, ambition, and worldly wisdom. He had brilliance, but he lacked character. It was only when he met Christ in a garden in Milan, weeping and crying, "Take and read, take and read," and opening his Bible to Romans 13, that the Lord began to form in him the inner man that would later write the Confessions and The City of God and shape the Church for centuries. Augustine is a reminder to every African man: your past does not disqualify you, but your character must be rebuilt from the inside out.

Let me ask you some hard questions, brother. When you are alone on your phone, what do you look at? When your wife disagrees with you, how do you respond? When a woman who is not your wife smiles at you, what do you do with your eyes? When the bribe is offered, what do you say? When your child disobeys, do you correct with patience or explode with rage? When the offering plate comes around, do you give, or do you grip? When someone insults you, do you return evil or bless?

These small moments, multiplied over years, are who you really are. These are the inner man. No title from men can replace it. No amount of noisy religion can disguise it. God sees it. Your wife sees it. Your children see it. And one day, the whole of heaven and earth will see it.

But here is the good news. You are not left alone to build your character. "God's divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3). In Christ, you have everything you need. The Holy Spirit lives in you. The Word of God is given to you. The Church of God surrounds you. The means of grace are available to you. If your character is weak, it is not because God has withheld anything.

It is because you have not pressed into what He has already provided.

So do not be discouraged. Begin today. Begin with confession. Begin with the Word. Begin with prayer. Begin in the secret place. And let God slowly, patiently, build in you a man whose outside and inside match — a man whose wife trusts him, whose children honor him, whose church can rely on him, and whose Savior can say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

A Prayer Father, You see what no one else sees. You know what no one else knows. You have looked into my heart, and You have seen the truth about me. Where I am a hypocrite, expose me. Where I am proud, humble me. Where I am lazy in my soul, stir me up. Lord Jesus, You were tempted in every way as I am, yet You were without sin. Form Your character in me by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Make my outside and my inside the same. Make me a man of integrity — whole, undivided, true. Help me to build my inner man in the secret place, so that when my moment comes, I will not fall. In Your holy name I pray, amen.