THE EVILS OF A BAD DISPOSITION

The wisdom of the fathers

THE EVILS OF A BAD DISPOSITION

A BAD DISPOSITION has been called "the vice of the virtuous. ...Many persons who have been secretly longing to find Christ have been turned away and embittered by manifestations of ugly dispositional flaws in the lives of the very persons who were trying to win them.

Deliverance from inward sins would seem to be a spiritual necessity . In the face of the havoc wrought by dispositional sins among religious people we do not see how sincere men can deny that necessity.

Unsaintly saints are the tragedy of Christianity. People of the world usually pass through the circle of disciples of Christ, and if they find those disciples severe and sharp-tongued they can hardly be blamed if they sigh and turn away from Him.

All this is more than theory. Unholy tempers among professed saints constitute a plague of pestilence. The low state of religion in our day is largely due to the lack of public confidence in religious people. It is time we Christians stop trying to excuse un-Christlike dispositions and frankly admit our failure to live as we should.

There is a remedy for inward evil. There is a power in Christ that can enable the worst of us to live lives of purity and love. We have but to seek it and to lay hold of it in faith. God will not disappoint us.

(from "Of God and Men" by A. W. Tozer)