Knights of Christ: Living Today with the Virtues of Ancient Knighthood

By Daniel A Biddle

The true knights of the Middle Ages were passionate about their faith, their relationship with Christ, and their dedication to living by the virtues of Scripture. The order of knighthood was esteemed by all, pursued by many, yet held by only few. The lifestyles, virtues, and commitments held by these knightswho were half warriors and half priestswere second to none in the medieval era, as well as today. The order of knighthood provided a code to live bya set of guidelines and practices that instilled honor, strength, and valor. This same order also served to set their lives on a track that helped safeguard them against self-inflicted trouble and heartache, insuring they could enjoy Gods best for their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449750442

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Copyright © 2012 by Daniel A. Biddle.

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For web resources and teaching videos related to this

book, see http://www.KnightsofChrist.com

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-5043-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5042-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5044-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012907931

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/09/2012

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

THE TWENTY-FOUR VIRTUES OF A TRUE KNIGHT

VIRTUE 1 GODLINESS

VIRTUE 2 FAITH

VIRTUE 3 HOPE

VIRTUE 4 LOVE

VIRTUE 5 JUSTICE

VIRTUE 6 PRUDENCE

VIRTUE 7 TEMPERANCE

VIRTUE 8 STRENGTH

VIRTUE 9 HUMILITY

VIRTUE 10 PERSEVERANCE

VIRTUE 11 HONOR

VIRTUE 12 CHARITY

VIRTUE 13 SACRIFICE

VIRTUE 14 COMPASSION

VIRTUE 15 LOYALTY

VIRTUE 16 TRUTH

VIRTUE 17 PURITY

VIRTUE 18 GALLANTRY

VIRTUE 19 HOSPITALITY

VIRTUE 20 COURTESY

VIRTUE 21 GRATITUDE

VIRTUE 22 GRACE AND MERCY

VIRTUE 23 MENTORSHIP

VIRTUE 24 OVERCOMING FAILURE

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

THE RITE OF PASSAGE:

EARNING THE PRIVILEGE OF KNIGHTHOOD

THE CEREMONY

APPENDIX

ENDNOTES

To my wife, Jennifer, who supported me in this work

To Makaela, Alyssa, Matthew, and Amanda, and to your children and your children’s children for a hundred generations—this book is for all of you

To my first knights: John (the Perceptive Knight), Maxwell (the Well-Rounded Knight), Christian (the Determined Knight), Benjamin (the Warrior Knight), Parker (the Knight with Love for every soul), Parker (the Perseverant Knight who never stops—yes, both of you!), and Justin and Bradley (the Brother Knights who together can slay any dragon)

To the Duke, Pastor Mark Johnston, who has trained an army of knights

And to Leigh Bashor and Jenny Arnez, whose labor greatly refined this work

Thank you all

Hail be to Christ, the First Knight

You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

—Psalm 45:2-6

I have found that most young people really want us to spell out a moral code. They may not accept it or believe it, but they want to hear it, clearly and without compromise.

—Graham¹

PREFACE

Some who read this book may mistake it for simply a review of rules for religiously living the Christian faith. It is not. This book describes twenty-four virtues that will protect your life against frivolous and void living and fill it with power, meaning, and faith. They will even protect you against troubles—troubles that you can bring on yourself by not living according to the twenty-four virtues of knighthood.

View these virtues as the structure for your life—the backbone. These traits, like a knight’s armor, will protect and guide you so you can find and keep the journey the Lord desires for your life (Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Chronicles 7:14). But these virtues must also be coupled with a life lived with passion, heart, love, and grace. Without these, the virtues of knighthood can be reduced to just rules, legalism, and a life lived as a clanging gong (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Living under the Order of Knighthood means that a person has determined to do just that—live under the Order defined by these twenty-four virtues. Knights live fully subjected to the virtues of the Order—to the point where they govern his behaviors on a daily basis, no matter what the circumstances. A knight is one who takes 1 Timothy 6:11 seriously: But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

By living according to these virtues, a person can obtain the confidence of the living God and be put into a position where he is regularly used by God for His purposes: "For the Lord detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence" (Proverbs 3:32, emphasis added). Scripture gives direct promises to enlist us in God’s personal service if we do so.

If a man cleanses himself from the latter [wickedness and godless living], he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work (2 Timothy 2:21).

The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them (Psalm 25:14).

Living a life subjected to the Holy Spirit will naturally produce these traits in one’s life: And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). Jesus is the author and finisher of our lives and yearns to live through us in powerful ways (Philippians 1:6).

Before diving into this book on biblical and knightly virtues, let’s review just one more thing: Just what is Christian virtue? A set of Sunday school rules? Rules for living like a good Christian? Actually, they are neither. They are slightly more complicated.

Put simply, Christian virtues are the "thou shalls" of Christianity—they represent what you should be doing with your life and how you should be living as God intended to both enjoy your life and make the impact you were intended to make while on this earth.

Virtue also differs from rule-keeping because it has to do with character. Character is much more than rule-keeping—it is about who you are as a person, what you stand for, how you respond to tough situations, what you are willing to compromise for, and what you will not. N. T. Wright puts it this way: "Jesus Himself, backed up by the early Christian writers, speaks repeatedly about the development of a particular character. Character—the transforming, shaping, and marking of a life and its habits—will generate the sort of behavior that rules might have pointed toward but which a ‘rule-keeping’ mentality can never achieve. And it will produce the sort of life which will in fact be true to itself . . ." (emphases added)²

And virtue, when practiced continually, builds a life of character. Action by action, choice by choice, virtue transforms you into a person of true character: Virtue, in this strict sense, is what happens when someone has made a thousand small choices, requiring effort and concentration, to do something which is good and right but which doesn’t ‘come naturally’—and then, on a thousand and first time, when it really matters, they find that they do what’s required ‘automatically.’³

Finally, virtuous living should not be viewed as the opposite of living freely and gracefully by the Holy Spirit and having a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). As Wright also points out, "Christian virtue, including the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit is both the gift of God and the result of the person of faith making conscious decisions to cultivate this way of life and these habits of heart and mind."⁴ Wright continues to make the point that if we are going to grow fruit of the Spirit, we need to tend the tree that produces it.

All who strive to live by these virtues will experience challenge and struggle in this life—but they will also experience lasting blessings and a life full of meaning and richness in the eyes of God. In Christ, we are given both the freedom to strive to live by these virtues and the grace to try again when we fall. Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity (Proverbs 24:16). May your journey be filled with grace, purpose, power, and love.

REFLECT

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

—John 15:15-17

All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. I suppose I shall understand these things some day! You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming wise and prudent.⁵

—Oswald Chambers

For web resources and teaching videos related to this book, see http://www.KnightsofChrist.com

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever found yourself sitting with friends after watching a great medieval knight movie and your friends are saying, That was a cool movie, while you are thinking, "No—that was a really cool movie" and finding yourself reflecting on some of the deeper meanings in the movie? If this is true about you, the chances are you will enjoy this book.

History tells us that real knights lived, and that they were different. They were different because many of them took their Christianity, their code of ethics, and their life ethos very seriously. As the movie about the Navy SEALs, Act of Valor, opens, the narrator reads a letter explaining that every man must have a code, an ethos, a set of convictions that dictate his purpose and behavior in life. This code forms the box in which he lives and moves and makes decisions. This book provides such an ethos for today’s Christian. No, I am not talking about legalism or keeping some regimented list of rules or regulations. I am talking about character, conviction, and true Christianity. I am talking about a life modeled after the psalmist who wrote: "My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me" (Psalm 63:8, KJV, emphasis added).

Why is this important? Because the statement Those who do not stand for something will fall for anything is true. If you are not quite sure you believe this, just take a look around in your life. How are your friends turning out? Are the majority of your childhood friends currently living God-honoring lives? Are they living with God, through God, and for God on a daily basis?

That is where this book can make a difference. By learning these twenty-four knightly virtues and why the medieval knights chose to live by them, you can strengthen your personal ethos and develop one that is based firmly on God’s DNA for life contained in Scripture.

What is the result of living such a life? God’s promises for those who live their lives to honor Him are incredible. Here is just a sample of the promises that are issued to you personally from the God of the Universe:

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9).

A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished (Proverbs 28:20).

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed (Proverbs 3:13-18).

When the Bible makes promises like these, they can be counted on. The Old Testament (particularly Psalms and Proverbs—e.g., Proverbs 10-11) are filled with contrasting promises—promises that assure that those who order their lives after God’s ways and those who choose to carve out their own way of living will have very different lives—both now and for eternity.

While we have our eternal destiny secure if we have truly trusted in Christ for our salvation, we will experience more than our share of struggle in this life if we live against God’s ways:

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: A dog returns to its vomit, and, A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud (2 Peter 2:20-22).

So how do we avoid this struggle—one where we continually cycle our lives back into the web of sin that is so effective at destroying our lives and stealing God’s best for us? By living under the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit and by following God’s Word in a way that it becomes a daily habit and part of our deep-seated character. This book will help you do both of these.

This does not imply that God runs around sprinkling daily blessings into the lives of his good children and cursing the lives of the wicked. Rather, challenges come into the lives of those who pursue God and those who have forsaken Him. But we get to choose how we respond and which road we will take along our journey of life:

Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm (Proverbs 1:20-33).

This passage presents the truth that we all have choices to make—choices to take God’s way or our way at several life junctures that we face every day. This passage is not asserting, and neither is the author, that those who follow God’s way will live happy, unblemished, and unchallenged lives. Rather, challenges flow into everyone’s lives, but this book will help guide your choices to minimize the extra challenges we sometimes create for ourselves by making choices that stray from God’s path.

But wait a