Boldness: The Missing Virtue We Still Need

It takes guts to stand up to powerful people and the institutions they operate. It requires boldness. But most people don’t want to face the criticism they’ll receive for resisting the powerful. If you’ve never tried to stand up to a powerful force for evil and taken a beating for it, boldness might seem like a foreign concept, but it’s actually a tiny virtue.  It’s a missing virtue.  We need more people–not fewer people–to stand against evil.  If not Christians, then who?

We’ve been looking at Tiny Virtues for Exemplary Christian Living and the character virtues like boldness are what I’ve called “cluster virtues” because they’re closely related to others, they touch our hearts and minds, contribute to our character, but they reside in the will. Boldness willingly lays one’s life on the line for a cause greater than oneself.  That’s why Christians ought to be the boldest among us.

Boldness was a concept Stephen knew something about. His own character was in order and recognized as such (Acts 6:5-8). That’s not what made him bold, though. What made him bold was the message he brought (Acts 7). He brought the truth.

The truth is that great leaders like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron were deeply flawed men. They lied, they bragged, they killed, and they did the people’s bidding instead of God’s… yet, God used them to bring a pattern of the Messiah to come. Stephen pointed out that truth and proclaimed boldly that people have long rejected and persecuted men whom God was using, the capstone being the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you ever been bold?  If not, why not?

Ponder today: “When GOD wants to do an impossible task He takes an impossible man and crushes him.” (Alan Redpath).  How does this apply to men in a way it did not apply to Jesus?

Bible character of the day: Stephen