Daniel A. Biddle - Knights of Christ: Living today with the Virtues of Ancient Knighthood

KNIGHTS OF CHRIST

LIVING TODAY WITH THE VIRTUES OF ANCIENT KNIGHTHOOD

DANIEL A. BIDDLE

Copyright 2012 by Daniel A. Biddle.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-5043-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5042-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5044-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012907931

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/09/2012

CONTENTS

THE RITE OF PASSAGE:
EARNING THE PRIVILEGE OF KNIGHTHOOD

To my wife, Jennifer, who supported me in this work

To Makaela, Alyssa, Matthew, and Amanda, and to your children and your childrens children for a hundred generationsthis book is for all of you

To my first knights: John (the Perceptive Knight), Maxwell (the Well-Rounded Knight), Christian (the Determined Knight), Benjamin (the Warrior Knight), Parker (the Knight with Love for every soul), Parker (the Perseverant Knight who never stopsyes, both of you!), and Justin and Bradley (the Brother Knights who together can slay any dragon)

To the Duke, Pastor Mark Johnston, who has trained an army of knights

And to Leigh Bashor and Jenny Arnez, whose labor greatly refined this work

Thank you all

Hail be to Christ, the First Knight

You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the kings enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

Psalm 45:2-6

I have found that most young people really want us to spell out a moral code. They may not accept it or believe it, but they want to hear it, clearly and without compromise.

Graham

Some who read this book may mistake it for simply a review of rules for religiously living the Christian faith. It is not. This book describes twenty-four virtues that will protect your life against frivolous and void living and fill it with power, meaning, and faith. They will even protect you against troublestroubles that you can bring on yourself by not living according to the twenty-four virtues of knighthood.

View these virtues as the structure for your lifethe backbone. These traits, like a knights armor, will protect and guide you so you can find and keep the journey the Lord desires for your life (Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Chronicles 7:14). But these virtues must also be coupled with a life lived with passion, heart, love, and grace. Without these, the virtues of knighthood can be reduced to just rules, legalism, and a life lived as a clanging gong (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Living under the Order of Knighthood means that a person has determined to do just thatlive under the Order defined by these twenty-four virtues. Knights live fully subjected to the virtues of the Orderto the point where they govern his behaviors on a daily basis, no matter what the circumstances. A knight is one who takes 1 Timothy 6:11 seriously: But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

By living according to these virtues, a person can obtain the confidence of the living God and be put into a position where he is regularly used by God for His purposes: For the Lord detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence (Proverbs 3:32, emphasis added). Scripture gives direct promises to enlist us in Gods personal service if we do so.

If a man cleanses himself from the latter [wickedness and godless living], he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work (2 Timothy 2:21).

The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them (Psalm 25:14).

Living a life subjected to the Holy Spirit will naturally produce these traits in ones life: And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). Jesus is the author and finisher of our lives and yearns to live through us in powerful ways (Philippians 1:6).

Before diving into this book on biblical and knightly virtues, lets review just one more thing: Just what is Christian virtue ? A set of Sunday school rules? Rules for living like a good Christian? Actually, they are neither. They are slightly more complicated.

Put simply, Christian virtues are the thou shalls of Christianitythey represent what you should be doing with your life and how you should be living as God intended to both enjoy your life and make the impact you were intended to make while on this earth.

Virtue also differs from rule-keeping because it has to do with character. Character is much more than rule-keepingit is about who you are as a person, what you stand for, how you respond to tough situations, what you are willing to compromise for, and what you will not. N. T. Wright puts it this way: Jesus Himself, backed up by the early Christian writers, speaks repeatedly about the development of a particular character. Characterthe transforming, shaping, and marking of a life and its habitswill generate the sort of behavior that rules might have pointed toward but which a rule-keeping mentality can never achieve. And it will produce the sort of life which will in fact be true to itself... (emphases added)

And virtue, when practiced continually, builds a life of character. Action by action, choice by choice, virtue transforms you into a person of true character: Virtue, in this strict sense, is what happens when someone has made a thousand small choices, requiring effort and concentration, to do something which is good and right but which doesnt come naturallyand then, on a thousand and first time, when it really matters, they find that they do whats required automatically.

Finally, virtuous living should not be viewed as the opposite of living freely and gracefully by the Holy Spirit and having a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). As Wright also points out, Christian virtue, including the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit is both the gift of God and the result of the person of faith making conscious decisions to cultivate this way of life and these habits of heart and mind. Wright continues to make the point that if we are going to grow fruit of the Spirit, we need to tend the tree that produces it .