Last month I was a character reference for a friend who was candidating with a missions agency. All I had to do was give my honest feedback based on certain key performance indicators (KPIs). As I “evaluated” my friend, I wondered how my peers would rate me, not in my professional capacity, but as a believer in Jesus. I wondered how I would fare in these KPIs of holiness: tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, love (Colossians 3:12-14).

Tenderhearted mercy is compassion that enters the pain of another with empathy. Kindness is treating others with respect and dignity, giving value and honor to another. Humility, the rarest and also the chief Christian virtue because it is the opposite of pride (the worst of sins), is not doing anything that is self-seeking, self-serving, or self-elevating. Gentleness, the outward expression of meekness (not weakness, but strength under control), is the capacity to put aside your rights for another person’s sake and the willingness to suffer injury instead of inflicting it. Patience is longsuffering self-restraint, not exploding in anger or temper (Colossians 3:12).

Being forbearing and forgiving is the ability to endure long without retaliation, praying, Father, don’t hold this against him/her (Colossians 3:13). And love is the overcoat that envelops and unifies all these virtues (Colossians 3:14). When love dominates, there’s beauty, harmony, and maturity (1 Corinthians 13).

These KPIs paint for us a picture of who Jesus is. That’s why we are to “clothe [ourselves] with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14 NIV; also see Galatians 3:27). To be holy is to be Christlike—“to live like Jesus here in this world” (1 John 4:17), until we become like Christ! (Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49).

 NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Luke 23:32-49