Character of Heart

A Nazirite was a person who swore an oath to God to commit himself or herself for a certain period of time. It could be as short as 30 days, or it could be a lifetime commitment. For Samson and John the Baptist, the Nazirite lifestyle was the way of life they were to live from conception. The mothers were not allowed to have grapes in their diet during the time of their pregnancy until the child was weaned. As they grew, these two men were not to cut their hair or to shave their beards. This is cosmetic. The mission these men were given is more important than the lifestyle.

Too often decisions of marriage have been made based on how good a person looks. When Samuel went looking for a king, Saul was chosen by God and was anointed the first king of Israel. The people thought he was very kingly in his appearance. However, in his character, Saul eventually became a disappointment, and it broke Samuel's heart that God rejected Saul. While searching for a king to replace Saul, Samuel had an interview with the sons of Jesse. The first son approached Samuel, who looked upon him and thought that he looked very much the way a king should look. God told Samuel that men look at the outward appearance, but He looked upon the heart of men. Samuel interviewed each son of Jesse, except the one who was actually out doing his job. A young shepherd boy was called in, had his interview with Samuel, and was accepted by God to be the next leader of the Israelites. It was with peace of heart and mind that Samuel was able to anoint David the next king of Israel.

The character of any follower of God is critical, for a sinful world is watching and waiting for a sign and wonder from heaven to prove to them there is a God. A few simple facts need to be addressed that the world does not seem to understand and that Christians are apt to forget.

There are none righteous in the world. Not one person has any form of righteousness to call his or her own. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Because we are all sinners, people who have broken God's law, we are all worthy of death. Death in this case is eternal separation from God. It is more than the simple state of unconsciousness one faces at the end of one's natural life. When it comes to accusing a person of sin, no one has "the high moral ground."

God alone holds the moral high ground from which to judge spiritual matters of the heart. These laws, the Ten Commandments, are found in Exodus 20. They are a direct revelation of the character of God. God's character is worthy of being imprinted upon the hearts and minds of those who would seek to be like God. We must acknowledge this because 1) He leads us out of slavery, meaning that we do not have to continue living in bondage to sin; 2) He has no equal worthy to be worshiped, for there is no one in the universe who is like Him in any way; 3) He is not the figment of our imagination, and since we have never seen Him face to face, we do not have any right to make a god in our own image to bow down to or commit our lives to, nor do we have the right to use His name in a way that brings shame, humiliation, or disgrace to Him; 4) He is our Creator, but also created the heavens under which we live and the waters that we drink and the land from which the food we eat is produced, and we are obligated to Him to keep holy the seventh day of the week, for He set it apart from the rest of the week, blessed it, made it sacred, and allows us to take a break from all our work; 5) He is the only God to claim to be our Father, and loves all of His creation with a mighty love as only a Father can, for it is His nature to love, so He deserves to be honored by His children; 6)He created life and claims to be our Father, so it is not in God's character for Him to willingly seek to hate or to destroy any child of His, and therefore the brothers and sisters of God's family must love each other, for love reflects His character; 7) He has committed Himself to us, has bound Himself to us with an oath that He can never break, and seeks to have an intimate relationship with each of His children; 8) He gives without taking from the abundance of His heart and never takes anything from us by force, but He asks that we willingly surrender that which He knows is not healthy for us or for our relationship with Him; 9) He has been honest with us about our origins, has been forthcoming about the truth of His love for us, and has never broken a promise if we in turn honored our commitments to Him; 10) He has no desire to take from us any blessing with which He has shared with us, for His heart is a heart of giving, and it seeks nothing of its own.

Throughout the Psalms, the writer desires for God to write His laws and commands and statutes into his heart. He meditates upon them. He sees the beauty of God reflected in the words written upon stone and placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, under the mercy seat where God Himself sits. These laws were to be fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ, and they are to be fulfilled in the lives of every believer, for to act upon these laws is to act in love returned to God and shared with every human being. These laws were nailed to the cross of Calvary when Jesus died, and taken into the tomb. Upon the third day, when Christ was resurrected, the law was again brought back to life in Him.

Jesus told the disciples that if they had seen Him, then they have seen the Father, for Jesus and the Father are one, united in principle, united in character, united in their love for the sinful human race. It was the finger of Jesus that wrote the commandments into tables of stone. It is the desire of God to write the commandments into hearts of flesh so that they may be brought to life. If a follower of Jesus Christ loves Him, then He obeys Him, and the true disciples of Christ will be known by the love they have one for another. It is a love that is never withheld from anyone for any purpose. There is no room for falsehood in such a love as this.

If we would be committed to the cause of Christ, then we must have a love for souls, and a desire to seek those who are lost. We must love the missionary work we are called to do. The character of God's heart is love, and this love must be our love. Without it, we are nothing, and the religion we believe in is useless to humanity.

A Nazirite is nothing without love. The lifestyle is useless without love. If one has no love, then it is a useless gesture to dedicate oneself to God. If we have no love, then we are not true followers of Jesus Christ, but we are offspring of the father of lies. We must allow the Holy Spirit come into our lives and work within us to make the character of our heavenly Father come to life within us. We must be made ready for heaven. We must be totally surrendered, totally committed to the will of God.