“Religious ignorance and a general unconcernedness about divine things, together with the most profuse dissipation and a growing disregard of moral virtue, are the reigning characteristics of the present age.”1 So wrote Augustus Toplady in a letter to a friend in 1776. Although Toplady was writing about England in the eighteenth century, the statement fits the cultural context of various countries today, including the United States. There is definitely a “growing disregard of moral virtue” all around us. People live their lives with a primary goal of personal happiness, ease, and pleasure. If that means lying, cheating, sexual promiscuity, or ignoring people in need, so be it. If it means hurting oneself through drug use or gender change procedures, such is life. The overarching telos, or end, for most people today is an easy life of self-centered happiness, mostly void of moral virtue.
Speaking of telos from a Christian perspective, the Bible says we were created by God and for God’s glory. We were not created to serve ourselves and seek personal happiness however we wish. Instead, the Christian’s aim is to bring glory to God. Where do we find out how to glorify God? In his Word, which is “the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.”2 In other words, we can glorify God by exhibiting the virtues prescribed in his Word. The Ten Commandments teach us about morality and virtue. But more broadly, the Bible speaks of the virtues of faith, hope, love, justice, wisdom, spiritual courage, and self-control. These virtues have been highlighted in different ways throughout the history of the Christian church.
Another question might come up: What does it mean to live out those Christian virtues in our self-serving culture? If you want a great answer to that good question, you will want to get Alan Noble’s 2026 publication To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times. This book is a helpful resource to learn about the above-named Christian virtues. It is also a good guide for living out these virtues here and now in ways that please God, benefit others, and bring purpose and meaning to life. The virtues are about living for God and finding significance in doing so. “Virtues are cultivated habits that align us with who God created us to be” (7). Practicing these virtues, Noble says, is not always easy. But because the Christian is graciously united to Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, he finds the yoke of Christ light and not burdensome (8).
There are seven chapters in To Live Well (TLW). Each chapter gives a helpful overview of a specific Christian virtue. The titles and summaries of each chapter are as follows: (1) “Choosing Decisively”: This chapter is about making wise decisions that are not only deliberated on but also carried out. (2) “Acting Justly”: The second chapter explains the biblical concept of living justly, which means “giving someone what they are due according to the rights given to them by God in the created order and the Bible” (47). (3) “Suffering Steadfastly”: Fortitude is the virtue Noble discusses in this chapter. True fortitude is pressing on through suffering “for the sake of the good” (67). (4) “Living Moderately”: The virtue of self-control (temperance) is what Noble means by living moderately, as he explains in chapter 4. (5) “Believing Soundly”: Faith, of course, is a biblical virtue and the topic of the fifth chapter. (6) “Hoping Resolutely”: This chapter is about the virtue of hope, which is a theme found throughout Scripture. (7) “Loving Rightly”: The final chapter is an overview of the greatest Christian virtue, love—our love for God and others, which arises from God’s love for us.
Each chapter explains the specific virtue using various texts and teachings of Scripture. Noble also draws from theologians of the past to shed further light on these virtues, including Augustine, John Calvin, and C. S. Lewis. Noble’s most significant discussion partner in this book is Josef Pieper’s writings on virtue from the twentieth century. The author mentions significant theological disagreements he has with Pieper, but he helpfully points out some insightful aspects of Pieper’s teaching on the Christian virtues. At the end of each chapter, there is an application section that explains the virtue in a real-life setting. This section of each chapter is where the theory meets practice, so to speak. For example, faith is a Christian virtue. One can learn the meaning of the virtue of faith. But what does it look like in real life? This is what Noble discusses in the application section of each chapter. TLW is not just a theoretical book on Christian virtue; it is also practical.
One of my favorite chapters was the one on prudence (“Choosing Decisively”). We must make so many decisions throughout life. Sometimes we overthink things so much that decisions become stressful. Noble says prudence helps with making decisions in a way that avoids much of the stress that comes from overthinking. Prudence is, in Noble’s words, seeing the reality of a situation, recognizing and desiring what is good, deliberating, making a judgment, and resolutely acting on that judgment (18). When making a decision, we often must understand that there are various good choices we could make in different situations. Prudence understands that not every situation has only one right choice. Prudence also includes receiving and following advice from others. And it means that once you make a choice, you carry it out: “Prudence is something that you do” (27). The application section of this chapter discusses prudence in choosing jobs and careers, as well as a spouse. I appreciated Noble’s insight that sometimes we make wrong choices, and we have to lean on God’s grace when those times come.
I also enjoyed chapter 3, which is about fortitude (“Suffering Steadfastly”). In this chapter, Noble touches on health challenges, trauma, and our culture’s escape-from-suffering-at-all-cost mentality. From a Christian perspective, however, we know that suffering exists in this world. We cannot always escape it. But we face it with Christian fortitude: “Perseverance under suffering for the sake of the greater good” (68). Fortitude also has to do with courage, the “willingness to endure despite fear” (70). This virtue is, in fact, part of living a life that honors God. Fortitude also gives the Christian’s life purpose, direction, and meaning. Noble applies fortitude to both daily suffering and marriage. He ends the chapter by relating fortitude to magnanimity (bigheartedness) and ambition. This chapter was helpful for me because it reminded me that going through trials and hardships in the Christian life can and should be done with Christian virtue. And our displaying the virtue of fortitude when we suffer glorifies God and is a blessing to other people. Living a life of ease and avoiding anything painful and difficult may be easy (of course), but it is neither fulfilling nor the pathway to blessing. Taking the harder road of Christian virtue, however, is both fulfilling and the way of blessing.
There are many more insightful sections of TLW. I believe this book is a much-needed resource to help Christians learn more about these basic biblical virtues and live them out in our present cultural situation. I hear people saying that today Christian men need to be more masculine and Christian women need to be more feminine. I disagree. Christian masculinity and femininity are often embedded in cultural practices and preferences. Whose version of masculinity or femininity should Christians follow? A much more biblical and objective way forward is that of virtue. In other words, what all Christians need—men and women—is to know and practice biblical virtues: faith, hope, love, wisdom, justice, fortitude, and self-control. To Live Well is a wonderful primer on the Christian virtues and is extremely relevant to our modern situation. The book is not terribly long, but it is rich with insight about Christian virtue. In practicing these virtues with the help of the Holy Spirit, “we gain freedom from sin and from the power of a chaotic world” (13).
Notes
- Augustus M. Toplady, The Works of Augustus M. Toplady (London; Edinburgh 1825), 6:274.
- Westminster Shorter Catechism 2.
©Shane Lems. All Rights Reserved.
Alan Noble, To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times (IVP, 2026).
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Shane Lems
Shane Lems is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California and has a DMin from RTS Orlando. He has been a church planter and pastor in the URCNA. Since 2013 he’s been serving as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, WI. He is married and has four children. Shane has written numerous articles for Modern Reformation, New Horizons, and other publications. He is also the author of Doctrines of Grace: Student Edition and manages a book blog, The Reformed Reader.
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