Beautiful Qualities In Others

Just as with the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus delights in the glory of this man as an image bearer of God. The Lord makes the centurion’s good qualities as a human person his primary point of
communication. Here is a man with love and compassion for those under him, a man with deep respect for Christ, a man with a profound understanding of leadership and authority, a man who is noble enough to show great honor to the Jews (despised and abused by many of his fellow military officers), and a man of great humility. Jesus sees all this and marvels at this man.

We need to learn to look for such beautiful qualities in the lives of the people around us, both fellow believers and unbelievers. Think of the example of C. S. Lewis. His delight in joy, his creative imagination, his life of self-sacrifice, his respect for holiness, and his love for good literature (especially stories and myths with their echoes of truth) were the primary means that the Lord used to get his attention and to call him to faith. On a more personal level, my father had a deep love for my mother (my parents had one of the best marriages I have ever had the privilege to see), and it was this love for his wife, his strong commitment to family, and his passion for social and economic justice that were the points at which I could begin to talk to him with real seriousness about ultimate truth.

Do we marvel, like Jesus, at the good qualities of the unbelievers we meet so that their glory becomes a bridge for the good news of the gospel? I do not mean of course that such beauty in the life of an unbeliever is adequate to earn the love of God; nor will it gain them entrance into the kingdom. No human person, apart from Christ him- self, has ever lived a life of such moral loveliness that he or she merits salvation. God’s standard is his own perfect holiness. But these noble characteristics in an unbeliever’s life are God’s general graces that he gives richly in order to draw people to faith in his Son.

- Jerram Barrs, Learning Evangelism from Jesus, p. 199, 200