Virtues of a Young Man

Once I went to speak to a youth group in a Church. Most of the young people were converted from non-Christian background and are very active for the Lord. They attended youth meetings enthusiastically and are involved in youth ministry, Sunday schools, Bible studies and street preaching. They prayed for their friends and relatives, and brought them to Church.

I told them to write down their personal problems in one of the sessions and asked them to pass it on to me. When I went through their papers, I found that they had the usual problems of young people. But at the same time they longed to lead a holy life like David who prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” Ps 51:10.

Today many young people want to lead a holy and fruitful life. St Paul exhorted Timothy to observe a few Godly qualities in 2Tim 2:22, 23. These are the qualities that all young people must put into practise to lead a victorious Christian and fruitful living.

1) Flee from Youthful lusts:

Lust is evil desire and its origin is Satan 1Jn 3:8-12, the world 2Pet 1:4 and the flesh Js 1:14, 15. The Bible calls us, “to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against our souls” 1Pet 2:11. We are called to flee from youthful lusts. When Joseph was alone in Potiphar’s house, he encountered a strong temptation from the flesh. He overcame the temptation by fleeing away from the object and place of temptation.

He was able to flee from the place, mainly because he considered sexual immortality as a ‘great wickedness’ and a ‘sin against God’ Gen 39:9. Today we need young men and women in our churches and youth groups who will consider sin as wickedness and flee from it. This is because sexual immortality is a sin against the body. “Flee sexual immortality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immortality sins against his own body” 1Cor 6:18.

2) Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace:

After a youth meeting, one engineering college student went to the preacher and said, “I accepted Jesus Christ in a meeting and want to live for God. But I find difficult to live for God in my college”. The preacher understood the desire of the young college student and told him, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled” Matt 5:6.

Daniel was a young man and he pursued after righteousness. He ‘purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with defiled food’ Dan 1:8. The Lord honoured his pursuit and helped him not only to overcome the sin, but also blessed him with wisdom and understanding ten times greater than that of others. 

Today our young people must pursue after righteousness, faith, love and peace to grow into maturity. They have to meditate and do ‘things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, things of good report, virtuous and praise worthy Phil 4:8, 9. These positive qualities will enable them to lead a victorious Christian life. 

3) Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes:

Most of the disputes among young people in these days are due to their failure to avoid them especially among themselves. Abraham and Lot settled in the land of Canaan and there arose strife between the herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot. Abraham solved this dispute very easily. He said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren… If you take the left, then I will go to the right or if you go to the right then I will go to the left” Gen 13:8, 9.

Our young people can avoid foolish disputes by following the example of Abraham. He humbled himself when there arose a dispute between the servants and understood that he should not fight back because Lot was his brother. Moreover Abraham was willing to go a second mile for the sake of avoiding disputes. Most of the disputes among young people and churches can be eliminated by avoiding foolish and ignorant disputes like Abraham. May the Lord help our young people to flee from youthful lusts, pursue after righteousness and avoid foolish and ignorant disputes..