The Necessary Habits and Virtues Practiced by All True Christians: (Albeit Imperfectly)

By RS Trifulescu

What are the characteristics and habits that true Christians exhibit? What behaviors separate the nominal "Christian" from one who has experienced salvation? If you are seeking assurance of possessing eternal life, this book will help you take inventory of spiritual necessities that will expose the state of your soul. Each chapter will be devoted to expanding on essential elements of the redeemed lifestyle that are necessary for the working out of your salvation. Though we all might feel convicted for not meeting the biblical standards highlighted in this work, you will be repeatedly reminded that you're doing these things only by the grace of God. So when you do fall short, you take advantage of the remedy we have in Christ and His perfection.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888328507

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The Necessary Habits and Virtues Practiced by All True Christians

(Albeit Imperfectly)

RS Trifulescu

ISBN 979-8-88832-849-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-850-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by RS Trifulescu

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter One

Possessing True Faith and Being Faithful

Chapter Two

Regularly Engaging in Good Works

Chapter Three

Praying without Ceasing

Chapter Four

Daily Scriptural Meditation

Chapter Five

Being a Witness to the Gospel

Chapter Six

Belonging to a Local Church

Chapter Seven

Generous Giving

Chapter Eight

Disciplined Fasting

Chapter Nine

Evidence of a Continually Repentant Heart

Chapter Ten

Always Ready to Forgive Others

Chapter Eleven

Expressing Thankfulness through Contentment

Chapter Twelve

Suffering for the Sake of Christ

Chapter Thirteen

Holding to a Childlike Humility

Chapter Fourteen

Motivated by a Living Hope

Chapter Fifteen

Striving for Holiness

Chapter Sixteen

A Life Driven by Love

Scripture Index

About the Author

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my son, Michael. Though we had only a brief time with you this side of glory, they were some of the most memorable days of my life. I look forward to seeing you again, and to hear about how glorious it must have been to grow up in the presence of our Lord.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ for allowing me to have opportunities to study His Word and share what He has shown me with others so that we all can benefit from His revealed will and grow in grace and truth. The primary purpose of this project was to bring Him honor and glory in presenting the most necessary components of the Christian life—so that His people might be equipped to live in a manner well pleasing to our Master, and to obtain assurance of their salvation.

I would also like to, again, thank my wife Linda for her patience with me in writing this book. She has also helped create the design for this book's cover, making evident her artistic ability as one of her many talents.

I think I should mention an old military friend of mine, who is always encouraging to me. We share a common faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and he has introduced me to so many things that have influenced my life. Thank you Shawn for your godliness, your thoughtfulness, and for remembering me after all these years even though I was only a small part of your life.

I want to also thank a close colleague of mine and a godly man—Allen, who has been an inspiration to me now for many years, living a life consistent with his testimony. He has earned a commendable reputation, impacting the lives of many students and their parents. But above all, he has a wonderful family that honors and respects him. That is one of the greatest commendations we can ever receive this side of glory.

I must thank those that have read my previous book on What All True Christians Believe and have responded favorably or offered some gentle criticism. I'm always learning and can appreciate the wise insights of those far more intelligent and seasoned in their Christian faith. The encouraging reviews have led me to work on this sequel since Christianity is not just about beliefs—but about how you live out those beliefs consistently.

Preface

We can call this volume a lesson in Applied Christianity. I'd like to help dispel the myth that Christianity is only about what you believe—that faith is all that matters. I am making the case (that many far more learned scholars have made before) that there are necessary works that must be practiced as a way of life if you want to be numbered among those in the camp of the redeemed. But doesn't that nullify the Sola Fide rallying cry of the Reformation? Not at all. They're just two sides of the same coin. A true faith will show itself through works of love and service. It is not just a love in words, but in deed also. It forgives and seeks the good of others. It is active in fostering a close relationship to the Lord, which will yield a lifestyle that liberates from sin and seeks the will of God in all things.

Those that know me well can attest to the fact that I may not be the most qualified person to write on this subject matter. My life has been a bit messy. I certainly have more than my share of inconsistencies and failures. But that might make me just the person to print these considerations. I could be the typical example of a Christian struggling in this fallen world, fighting the flesh (sometimes unsuccessfully), but seeking victory in Christ—in an effort to realize the assurance of my salvation. I know I fall short of the standard—but that does not make me want to give up. I realize that I sin everyday, but that doesn't mean I casually dismiss it, or justify it, or have no problems with that reality. The life of the Christian is one of imperfection, and yet aims at driving towards that perfection.

When Christ delivers to us the Beatitudes at the beginning of His most famous sermon (the Sermon on the Mount) in Matthew chapter 5, He is declaring a blessing upon all those who would follow after Him in sincerity and truth. He does it in a way to highlight various characteristics of their conduct and attitudes and how they respond to the circumstances of their life. Every true Christian is being described there. We may not exhibit such virtues everyday and perhaps not even consistently— but they are present in us. The Christian isn't proud and boastful—but has a gentle spirit, whose sensitivity will cause them to mourn many things in this world. They hunger and thirst for righteousness, since they seek to be pure in heart. They are peacemakers, because they are merciful, always forgiving and preferring to reject the vindictive route. They endure the afflictions of the enemy—insults, attacks, even physical harm—yet they do not respond in kind. They rejoice at such a privilege to be treated in similar fashion to how all God's people were treated at the hands of wicked men, even as the Lord Himself experienced.

Notice that for each of those beatitudes, there is a promised reward. Some rewards are immediate, and some will come later—but the saved soul will receive them and will find them to be worth far greater than what they deserved. That's how magnanimous our gracious God is—that even the rewards He promises are gracious. This is why we preach the Doctrines of Grace—because if you notice that you live a life reflecting the virtues and habits mentioned in this book, you are giving evidence of the work of grace in your life. It must be a work of God's grace so as not to swell one's pride, but rather to humble the saved sinner and encourage them to run the race with perseverance. And if you're running the race, run it to win! Don't settle for just stumbling across the finish line. Store up treasure in heaven now! Bring glory to Christ now! And then life will be much more satisfying to you.

But let's make sure you are not misunderstanding the goal of this work. I believe in salvation by grace. We do not earn our salvation by our works. There is nothing you can do, in your own power, that will merit eternal life. I also need to stress that these necessary works are not required to win the favor of God, or to get Him to love you more. God is not like man that way. We are the ones that love more when we are loved. Yet, the saved sinner who lives a life that grows in sanctification, and becomes more like Christ in his words, works, attitudes, and thoughts—will reap tremendous blessing, will receive bountiful reward, will bless many people, will experience the purpose of life most fully, and will find joy and satisfaction in the limitless grace of God.

Chapter One

Possessing True Faith and Being Faithful

It only makes sense that we feature, as our first virtue in this analysis, true and saving faith—because we learn from the book of Hebrews that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). We read in the Bible no less than four times that the just shall live by faith. Jesus requires His followers to believe in Him. I suppose this is why the Reformation saw it necessary to emphasize that true saving faith is a gift of God's grace that rejects any kind of contribution we can offer as a claim on our salvation. That's what makes faith a nonnegotiable element of true Christianity.

So if one lacks this faith, they are not a Christian. But what does it mean to live by faith? Or to be faithful? Part of that answer is that you consistently live with a worldview that God has everything to do with every part of your life. He is ever present. You believe His Word. You trust Jesus Christ for all things. And that will change your life. It will alter your behavior. It will confirm your salvation as you break the habitual practice of sin. We never become sinless in this life, but we certainly can sin less in becoming more like the sinless one—Jesus Christ. That is the obedience of faith. Sanctification is the slow but progressive activity of being made more and more into the image of Christ.

You cannot separate faith from the Word of God because faith is a supernatural work resulting from the Spirit of God using the Word of God to bring life to a lost soul. Faith is based on supernaturally revealed truth. But even though the reality that it is based on was not personally witnessed, we depend on the trustworthy character of the One who revealed it. There is enough evidence to verify the truth of what is revealed; nevertheless, the evidence is not so overwhelming that it would make faith unnecessary. Habakkuk the prophet is the first one to mention this phrase in Habakkuk 2:4.

Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (ESV)

But the apostle Peter also highlights the vital role of Scripture being tied to our salvation in 1 Peter 1:23.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (ESV)

Then the apostle Paul puts them together by equating Scripture with the Word of Christ in Romans 10:17.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (ESV)

Therefore, we must be diligent about aligning our lives with the Word of God. When we see that we don't quite measure up, that should bother us—not to the obsessive level of a psychological disorder, but we should not be indifferent to our weaknesses and shortcomings. That's what we ought to pray about—to improve upon and shore up those trouble spots in our lives. When there's a leak in the house, you don't just enjoy sitting on the dry side of the house and forget about the leak. You make it your mission to repair that leak as fast as possible because it will eventually affect the rest of the household in some way: Mold will develop, carpets get wet, the wood starts to rot, the structure is weakened, and so forth.

Being successful at school takes work. Raising kids properly requires consistent and concentrated effort. Having a strong marriage necessitates an investment of time, thoughtfulness, patience, and self-sacrifice. Running an efficient business takes the discipline of pouring many hours of hard work into the enterprise. Why should it be different in terms of living the Christian life? Sanctification takes time, effort, discipline, and consistent hard work so that we can enjoy the gift of assurance that God is pleased to give those who live according to His will.

These are all outworkings of true faith. Those who are indifferent to the virtues and habits that will be mentioned in this publication must wake up to the reality of the state of their souls. True Christian faith is not blind, nor is it inactive. Yet some may say, Doesn't this conflict with the idea that when we come to Christ, we are to rest in Him? I thought Jesus said that His burdens are easy and light?

But they are—when faith is exercised by the Holy Spirit. Do you think you are doing this all in your own strength? The lost souls who try to get some religion in their life attempt that and get tired out. They strive to earn their own place in the race and get burned out quickly. That's not what we are saying here. We're already in the race. Now we run it with all our might (by the power of the Spirit). We can always rest in Christ. We rest in Him when we stumble. We rest in Him for relief. And we will rest in Him when our work is done.

So let me emphasize that I hold tightly to the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. But that does not mean that because He did it all, we can now sit back and coast through this life with ease. God just didn't design it that way in this preliminary world. It also does not mean that we can enjoy our sins and be comforted by those often-used phrases: Nobody's perfect; We're all sinners; God made me like this, so He understands my failures; Aren't all my sins forgiven anyway? Those are misunderstandings and abuses of the doctrines of grace, which lead to committing presumptuous sins and revealing an unregenerate nature.

True Christians are not looking to justify their sins or make excuses for an easy way out of difficulty. Certainly, we are not to be licentious (sinning that grace may abound), so we need reminders. That's part of the function of the church—which is why we will address that topic in a later chapter.

True believers do sin in neglecting one or some of these virtues and practices for a time or in not doing them on a regular basis. But if you find that any of these characteristics are completely absent from your daily life, or they are being exercised in a mechanical and superficial fashion, this is the sounding of the trumpet for you. Should several of these habits or virtues be completely absent from your life, you are called to repent and make your profession for Christ a reality.

It is true that false brethren may be able, for a little while at least, to mimic some of these things in their own strength. But the Lord will judge their thoughts and intentions and will find them falling short. A false believer will not be able to regularly and genuinely engage in these habits on a consistent basis throughout their life. It is not in their nature. But it is in the nature of a true Christian to do so. We were empowered by the Spirit to live like this. Christ has changed our hearts to desire these actions as a way of life for His redeemed people. Do we do them perfectly? No. Do we think God will love us more the more we engage in these activities? No. But if we want to see progressive sanctification in our lives, and if we want to be at an optimal performance level in the kingdom, these are the exercises that will make us spiritually fit for what God wants us to do. And so we begin with the basic, elementary doctrine of faith. This is a necessity for the true Christian, as stated in Hebrews 11:6,

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (ESV)

We can define faith as believing in a significant series of events revealed to be true; to believe the One who revealed it; to trust the One who is making these claims; or to have confidence in that truth and to be able to rely on it for assurance. Another simpler way to say it is believing that truth without seeing or witnessing it yourself (see John 20:29 and 1 Pet. 1:6–9)—trusting that revelation without having all knowledge about it but being given enough credible information that makes the proposition reasonable.

The songwriter Michael Card defined it in poetic verse.

To hear with my heart, to see with my soul,

To be guided by a hand I cannot hold;

To trust in a way that I cannot see, That's what faith must be.

The apostle Paul phrases it like this in 2 Corinthians 5:7,

We walk by faith and not by sight. (ESV)

But this kind of faith is not a leap in the dark. It's not blind faith at all. There is plenty of factual information to undergird it—but not so much that would make faith unnecessary. In this way, God either keeps man humble with his limited knowledge, or it may harden him as he boasts with arrogance that there is not enough evidence so that faith is rendered unnecessary or unreasonable. That's why the world will look upon those who possess true faith as foolish and simpleminded, and yet those foolish and weak (according to the world) are the recipients of the greatest heavenly blessing. Since the Bible makes it clear that they only have that genuine faith because they have been given that faith as a gift, we see that in Ephesians 2:8–9,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)

And in Philippians 1:29,

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. (ESV)

Jesus says it another way in John 6:65,

And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. (ESV)

Then Paul declares that any kind of virtue we claim did not originate with us in 1 Corinthians 4:7b,

What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (ESV)

But Paul does mention in Romans 10 that faith is normally granted in connection to the hearing of the Word of God. That's why James and Peter write that we were born again through the Word of God. Let's revisit those foundational texts.

In Romans 10:17,

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (ESV)

In 1 Peter 1:23,

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (ESV)

In James 1:18,

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (ESV)

The Christian's faith is then grounded in Scripture. That's why it is equated to believing God Himself, so we can trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ who is the Word of God. The Scriptures are revealing Him to those who would have ears to hear. When someone claims to be a person of faith, but that faith is devoid of or contrary to Scripture, that is not the faith that is spoken of here. And neither are we speaking of a merely professed faith or of one who possesses adequate knowledge of the content of faith.

The Reformers taught that there are three faculties of man that must be engaged for a conversion to be authentic. If any one or more are consistently lacking, there is no genuine faith or salvation.

First, there is your reason or intellect that must confirm the truth. You must have adequate and accurate knowledge of what to believe in. You need to know the Scriptures and what they teach about Christ and your sinfulness. As a part of the Westminster Confession states, true faith believes whatever the Bible teaches. So you need to know what the Bible says. Just being stirred by an emotional sermon and manipulated to walk down an aisle or to say a prayer for your salvation when you are not informed about the full Gospel story or what the Scriptures teach about salvation could leave room for unbelief and the deceitfulness of sin.

Then there are our affections that must be engaged. You need conviction or feeling for what you are believing. If the person is not stirred or moved by the Gospel message, he is likely lacking compassion for others. Love grows cold real fast. Do you tremble at the threatenings of Scripture? Or is worship just mechanical and ceremonial? Are you just going through the motions regarding your faith? You may know doctrine quite well. You may even attend church regularly and do many great things in the kingdom, but there is no heart in it. It's as if you are doing it just to check it off of your list. This is not loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. There's a reason those four aspects of man are mentioned. Yes—it is saying to love God with every fiber of your being—but that includes these faculties that are being mentioned here.

Finally, we must have the will to carry out what we believe. Maybe you do know the Scriptures and even have strong feelings about them—even bringing you to tears on many occasions. But it never results in action or decision or commitment. There is no motivation to act on those beliefs or to exercise that compassion that one may feel. It is a faith without works. There must be a yielding of obedience to God's commands.

This is not supposed to be just a feel-good Christianity where you go to church every week only to feel good about what you believe, but then, it doesn't have application to your work week. It doesn't guide your relationships or govern your interactions with people. It doesn't check and cleanse your thought life so that you can filter all those things that can contaminate your soul.

You need all three of these faculties to be engaged to enjoy the assurance of genuine faith: reason or intellect, affection or emotion, and will or implementation of those beliefs and affections. Once you realize that all faculties are present concerning your faith, we then rest on the promises of Scripture that such faith will be sustained.

Hebrews 12:2 reminds us that Christ initiated our faith, and He will bring it to completion. So even though our faith may vary and our daily spiritual battle comes in waves that often leave us fatigued and wounded—we will not be defeated. We will not surrender to the enemy. We will not be taken prisoner since the book of Revelation and 1 John indicated that God's children are overcomers. Let's hear it from the apostle in 1 John 5:4–5.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (ESV)

Maybe the most beloved text in the Bible, spoken by Jesus Himself, places a high premium on saving faith in John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

To summarize, true faith must be an orthodox faith (faith based on truth—in Jesus Christ, who is the truth, and the work He has done to accomplish our salvation). It is a working faith (as James teaches us), or as Paul puts it: faith working through love. And it is a persevering faith: he who endures to the end will be saved because he is kept by the power of God, who will complete what He has begun.

Faith is given in various measures to God's people, and it even varies within us throughout our lives. But it is always there. And it is always growing. Surely, you've had some moments when faith was weak and, other