I’m often asked why there is no circle in the Be Diagram that might be labeled “Behave.” Certainly any framework for discipleship should reflect behavioral outcomes. We should expect that becoming more like Jesus as his disciple will result in actions and attitudes (behaviors) that will distinguish us as “peculiar” or “other worldly” kinds of people. It will be our behaviors along with our attitudes that will serve as a herald of the good news that there is an alternative reign within which I can live.
The short answer is that behavior is incorporated in the very center of the diagram under the category “Be.” For me, behavior is merely the external or visible manifestation of one’s character. Character, or “who you are” (represented by “Be”), is what shapes ones behavior. I behave the way I behave because that is what flows from the kind of person I am.
We should be concerned about Christian behavior in our own lives as well as the lives we are entrusted with as disciples of Jesus. The challenge is that for too much of the Church, we have found ways of being “Christian” without being Christlike. In fact, in Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart, we learn that the very object of discipleship is to develop an interior character that is the same as Jesus’ character. Christlikeness is a collection of behaviors.
To me, “Be” does a better job of communicating character. It describes a deeper dimension of the person than merely observable behavior. It is language of who we really “are.” We are all thankful that when we “blow it” people are gracious enough to believe that the errant behavior reflects an aberration of our known character. In the deeper and more foundational sense, who we are is more important than we do.
This leads to a second and more important reason I did not place “Behavior” at the center of the diagram. For many reasons, which I am not likely to adequately explain here, humans are prone to believing that what we do is more important than who we are. This perspective flows naturally from our human condition since we are beings who would rather live under our own reign and rule. We have only our own record and accomplishments to bolster our sense of worth and so it is our behavior that we turn to for comfort that we are deep down “good people.”
Unfortunately, this type of thinking when employed by the not-yet-fully-transformed mind (including ourselves), is used to judge others. We might find ourselves comparing ourselves with others who clearly do not behave correctly because they “smoke, drink, or chew or go with women who do.” This is the road to life-robbing Spirit-less religion.
Years ago, I remember in the early “emerging church” conversation a useful critique of a dominant assumption that involved “Behave.” The assumption was that to become a good Christian, people must first Believe the right things. But, as the critique goes, before allowing people to actually Belong, they had to Behave correctly as well. The requirement to behave correctly (as well as believe correctly) before people could belong seemed to contradict the gospel way of Jesus (who let people belong before they believed or behaved correctly). Behavior is too easily manipulated for self-righteous justification and was something I wanted to combat not promote in a framework for a missional discipleship.
I did not elevate behavior to a label status because I don’t want merely to promote external actions for Christians to conform to. It is very easy to tell Christians that they should do this or that, or that they shouldn’t do this or that. They will happily oblige as best as they are able. But ultimately, our discipleship should focus on character and not behavior.
My last reason for focusing on character and not behavior comes straight from the Willardian teaching that suggests that the only way we can “bless those who curse me, love my enemies and so forth” (behaviors) is by becoming “the kind of person [(character)] –in my inmost thoughts, feelings, attitudes and directions of will—who will routinely do the kinds of things [Jesus] said to do.”
We must become (be) the kind of person that _______ (fill in the blank with a behavior that flows from who we are).
I do not seem to have to resources to consistently show patience, love and kindness to too many people in my daily routine. I know I should be, and you can keep telling me. I’ll keep trying. But the promise of discipleship where I’m cooperating with God’s spirit to become the kind of person who is patient, loving and kind is a far superior way to go. As people who increasingly resemble Christ in character, we will more naturally do the things, which feel quite unnatural to us with our current character.
The best book I know of on discipleship is Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard. The subtitle says it all: Putting on the Character of Christ.
