Profiling: The Practice of Patterns
But what about “Christian Scene Investigation?” What role can profiling play in determining whether you and I are committed followers of Christ?

If you had to assign a degree of trustworthiness in financial matters to, say, Barnabas or Ananias and Sapphira, who would you have chosen? Barnabas had developed a reputation in the early church as a “good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24). When Barnabas brought a gift of money to give to the early church, there is no evidence that either his motives or honesty were questioned (Acts 4:36-37). But, Ananias and Sapphira were immediately revealed to be greedy deceivers who apparently had little or no history in the church (Acts 5:1-11).

Paul the Profiler
The apostle Paul was a profiler of sorts. In 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 he “profiles” Christian leaders (elders and deacons). If you have men among you who have displayed these characteristics and behaviors in the past, Paul wrote, they will likely make good leaders in the future. We still use Paul’s profiles when choosing elders and deacons in the church today.

In addition, Paul profiles people whose lives are (Galatians 5:22-23) and aren’t (Galatians 5:19-21) under the control of the Holy Spirit. The former manifests traits such as love, joy, and peace, and the latter displays behaviors such as immorality, discord, and selfish ambition.

The Profile of Jesus
And that brings us to the bottom line of profiling in Christian Scene Investigation: Christlikeness is the ultimate profile because when a person is like Christ, we know the character traits and behaviors to expect.

How do we develop the profile of Jesus? By having what the apostle Paul calls “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5)—living a life under the control of the Holy Spirit. Every believer is to be filled and led by the same Holy Spirit that led Jesus (Acts 2:38-39; Ephesians 5:18). And just as Jesus was motivated to speak and act by God the Father through the Spirit (John 5:30; 8:28, 42; 12:49; 14:10), so Christians are to speak by the Spirit’s leading (Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12; John 16:13). If the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; Galatians 5:22-23) was the profile of Jesus (and it was), and if we have the same Spirit as Jesus (and we do), shouldn’t our profile be the same as His? The answer is, obviously, Yes.

Profiling and Predictability
The human mind can actually become debased through sin (Romans 1:28). We can pursue futile and vain goals and objectives in life (Ephesians 4:17). We can set our minds on temporal, earthly things instead of on heavenly things (Colossians 3:2). And we can allow our minds—our faith and confidence in God—to become shaken by events around us (2 Thessalonians 2:2). Those traits and behaviors are not of the Spirit. If they ever begin to characterize us, we can know that we have left the Spirit’s control and are not living with the mind of Christ.

Christian Scene Investigators might say something like: “We have a tense situation developing in our inner-city ministry because of opposition from local drug dealers. We need to send in someone who is stable, courageous, winsome and wise, but who will speak the truth in love; someone who can defuse this situation the way Jesus often calmed antagonistic crowds.”

While criminal profiling always focuses on others, Christian profiling can focus on ourselves as well. If you developed a profile of your own life, using the fruit of the Spirit or the characteristics of a church leader as an outline, how close would it be to a profile of Jesus? The goal of Christian Scene Profiling is not judgment or a guilt trip, but motivation to renew our minds (Romans 12:2)—yielding to the Spirit moment by moment so as to have and manifest the mind of Christ.

There’s nothing wrong with being predictable when it means showing up and acting like Jesus!

This article was excerpted from Turning Points, Dr. David Jeremiah’s devotional magazine. Call Turning Point at 1-800-947-1993 for your complimentary copy of Turning Points.