“We Are What We Repeatedly Do”

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

We Are What We Repeatedly Do

Jarrod Jacobs

            The title for this article is part of a longer quote. When we think about the statement, “We are what we repeatedly do”, it states the truth. Our habits have a great impact on our lives. More than this, I see this statement as a good explanation for “why” God emphasizes the need for man being faithful to Him.

            Throughout the New Testament, we read about the need for God’s people to continue to follow Christ with obedient faith. Inherent in this is the need for patience, or endurance, as well as strength and courage when times get hard. Let us read some of these passages together.

• “… the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 10:22, 24:13).
• “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn. 10:27).
• “To those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Rom. 2:7).
• “Note then the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness to you. Provided you continue in his kindness” (Rom. 11:22).
• “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58).
• “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give not” (Gal. 6:9).
• “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (I Tim. 4:16).
• “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope” (Heb. 3:5-6).
• “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (Jas. 1:25).
• “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son, and in the Father” (I Jn. 2:24).
• “… be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

            From these passages, we see a pattern, do we not? God wants us to continue in a certain manner of life. Why? It is because “We are what we repeatedly do.” The man or woman who dies in sin has done so because he or she lived in sin (Jn. 8:24; Col. 3:7). In contrast, the man or woman who dies in the Lord (Rev. 14:13) has done so because he or she lived in the Lord!

            Thus, the question must be asked: “What do we repeatedly do?”  If we do not like what we are becoming, then it is time to stop what we are currently doing and start doing something else — repeatedly until the habit is formed!

            The full quote from which I got the title for this article comes from Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). He said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Now, pay attention to the rest of the quote. “Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

            May we appreciate just how true these words are. May we also then resolve to make excellence a habit by making the ultimate decision to become a Christian (Acts 2:38) and live faithfully to the God of Heaven (I Cor. 15:58). A life spent in repeatedly doing what God says will not be a wasted life.

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