Job 1:1 Outstanding Characteristics of Job CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

Job was perfect and upright and he feared God and eschewed evil – these four characteristics should be in us as God’s children – these things were said of Job three times (v.8, v.2:2-3) – there was none like him in the earth – likewise, there should be none like God’s people in the earth – we should be:

Perfect – fitted, adjusted, complete in – this is not sinlessness – Solomon said, “there is not a just man upon earth … that sinneth not,” Ecc 7:20 – Gen 17:1 the Lord told Abram to be perfect – this has to do with the heart [1 Ki 15:14 (Asa), 2 Ki 20:3 (Hezekiah), 1 Chr 12:38 (the men of war that made David king), 1 Chr 28:9 (Solomon)] and it has to do with the will of God [Phil 3:12-15] – a man is ultimately perfect when he is glorified but in the meantime he is perfect to the extent that he is at the place in the will of God where God wants him to be [Rom 12:1-2]

Upright – honest, just, adhering to rectitude [Rectitude of mind is the disposition to act in conformity to any known standard of right, truth or justice; rectitude of conduct is the actual conformity to such standard.] Our standard of right is Jesus – we need to conform to him – but we also need to maintain an outward obedience to rules, regulations, laws and standards – Job did the very best that he could – Job 31:1-40 – bless the Lord, some of you don’t even try – the trouble is that there are less and less examples of these and the standards now are more about control than they are about righteousness

God-fearing – Job had heard of him with the ear but then he saw him in the whirlwind and when the Lord spoke to him he repented – way more than reverence [Heb12:28] – it is knee knocking fear [Phil2:12] [Ex20:18-20] – and men don’t fear God today like they used to

Evil-eschewing – to flee from, to avoid, to shun – first of all he had enough sense to know what evil was – and then he had the sense to keep away from it – Job 28:28 – Christians live today as close to the line of evil as they can – you need to live as close to God as you can and stay as far away from the line of evil as you can