Excellence - Part 3

What is it about pursuing excellence that is uniquely Christian?

Last week the headlines read: Defiant Armstrong tells cancer conference: I’m a seven-time Tour de France champ.  Let me say very clearly that I don't know if Lance Armstrong is guilty of doping.   Assuming the charges are correct let us be clear about one principle for sure: 

Excelling in what you do will never can replace excelling in what you are.   

If you are a cheater, you are not a winner – no matter how far ahead of the pack you are.   This is what makes this subject uniquely Christian. Listen to the emphasis from the New Testament:

• 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that [may excel more and more –NASB]  you do so more and more.

• 2 Corinthians 8:7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

Paul reminds us often in the New Testament that our love ought to be one character that we consistently seek to excel in.  For example:

• 1 Thessalonians 3:12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

• 1 Thessalonians 4:10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,

You see the problem with talking about excellence apart from moral character takes the topic into paganism.   Excellence of character is always of a higher priority than excellence of conduct.