Most important virtue

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phx_Discerner

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So what do you think is the most important virtue in society today?

Clearly Chastity and sobriety; but any others y’all like to through out?
 
Charity is the queen of virtues and therefore always the most important. Humility is very basic as well. If you mean, the virtue opposed to the greatest vice that characterizes society particularly today, I’d probably say faith.
 
I would have to agree with the above posters: love (or charity). Why?
Because from love, all other virtues come forth. If a person loves God with their whole heart, they will do any thing out of love for Him. He asks you to be chaste? I’ll get right to work, Lord! He asks you to be humble? Straightaway! He asks you to care for the sick? Yes Lord!
You see, a person with the love of God in their heart can do anything. (1 Corinthians 13) 🙂
 
AGAPE - - -

The reason that I use the Greek here is clarify that when we speak of Love as a virtue, this is the form we are referring to - Agape - selfless and brotherly Love. All other (properly ordered) forms of love stem from this greater form…

Agape God above all else and Agape neighbor as yourself.

Peace
James
 
**This is a difficult question to answer if restricted to the most important virtue needed in our time.

Love is the most important virtue for all times; but other than love in our time, I would say more humility is needed, because humility is a prerequisite for faith … a virtue in very steep decline today. We need to stop bowing to our own egos and begin bowing to the Ego Sum Qui Sum.**
 
All virtues are intertwined. Virtues are of God, one cannot be humble if he is unjust and one can not love if he is not just. How can one be chastefull and not be sober? You want to know which virtue to practice, then practice all of them. It is a fallacy when someone says I am a patient person but I sometimes hate ______!
 
santiagoamr said:
All virtues are intertwined. Virtues are of God, one cannot be humble if he is unjust and one can not love if he is not just. How can one be chastefull and not be sober? You want to know which virtue to practice, then practice all of them. It is a fallacy when someone says I am a patient person but I sometimes hate ______!
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This is very true…virtues are indeed intertwined.
but…
We must also take into account that we are all “works in progress”.
As such, we will display various degrees of perfection and imperfection in the various virtues.
So I must disagree with your view that it is a fallacy when someone says they are patient, but sometimes hate.
Such a person IS patient - or at least is trying very hard to be patient but they are not perfectly patient.
The same with the various other virtues.

Peace
James
 
That is just not possible: Virtues are perfection, they either are or are not. This is something that we must all face as humans, in this life we will never have a virtue, we can practice them yes, and have faith, but until we truly are the body of Christ, they are out of our reach. There can not be any imperfection regarding virtues, since they emanate from God and God is perfection, so in this world we are on a path to perfection which can be attained on death, if by Virtue of God we attain salvation. Virtues are Perfect
 
santiagoamr said:
That is just not possible: Virtues are perfection, they either are or are not. This is something that we must all face as humans, in this life we will never have a virtue, we can practice them yes, and have faith, but until we truly are the body of Christ, they are out of our reach. There can not be any imperfection regarding virtues, since they emanate from God and God is perfection, so in this world we are on a path to perfection which can be attained on death, if by Virtue of God we attain salvation. Virtues are Perfect
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I get the feeling that we are both trying to say the same thing.

Yes - if one looks at the definition of a given virtue one is looking at the ideal, the perfection of that virtue and being human, very few of us ever really approach perfection in these things in this life.
Yet - -
Are you willing to say that the person who has all the patience in the world with his children and his wife and next door neighbor etc…but struggles with being patient with his co-workers has NO patience at all?
That is the impression I am getting from your posts…Something very black and white. That one either has patience and has it perfectly - or one has no patience at all.

Maybe I’m reading you wrong…but the way I am reading it - it sounds quite discouraging…and I’m sure you do not wish to discourage others from developing and living a virtuous life.

Peace
James
 
Oh what a good question!

For me personally humility is the most important one. It comes before all else because without it I don’t know how much I need God to help me. If I lack humility, I’ll not see what is sinful in my nature and in my actions and in my life and I’ll get all messed up thinking I don’t need to change or improve personally. I cannot get past square one on the route to sainthood without first looking at myself squarely. This takes humility. This is a requirement for any growth in the spiritual life. I need to know myself like Socrates said and I cannot do so without humility.

Humility is the soil in which the seed a faith can grow.

Although love seems to be listed quite well by others, how does one know if one has the right kind of love to begin with (agape, eros or filioque) if one hasn’t the humility to examine ones loves in life?

I think the worst state of mind ever one could have is to be presumptuous and it starts by losing humility. God has a hard time getting through to the presumptuous. Their hearts get hardened and they become fixed in a state that cannot change. They are the “stiff necked” folks of the Old Testament. Keep this in mind too: a bowed head cannot get a stiff neck.

Glenda B.
 
Faith , hope, and love…these three remain. And the greatest of these is love. Some biblical author named Paul said something like this.
 
Absolutely love. It is always the most important virtue, in all times. If Christians truly loved there would be many more converts, as it is through the experience of true agape that people come to know and love God. There is no more important virtue nor will there ever be.
 
Prodigal_Son said:
Another vote for humility here!
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👍

I’ve always been a big fan of humility. The less you focus on your own needs and entrust them to God, the more you grow in all other virtues. My patron saint was a big promoter of humility :).
 
I’m a fan of humility as it is the remedy to pride which is (at least for me) the greatest of the seven deadly sins.
 
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