Being beautiful in spirit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

"Being beautiful in spirit", according to some, is and was considered the highest of "Knightly Virtues", and is said to be most akin to love for justice, and courage. This virtue is evidenced by hearing and obeying the Holy Spirit from a motivation of pure love, the Love of God. A true knight who was beautiful in spirit was said to have fire in his eyes, yet carried in his heart his one true spiritual love in a gentle way. This is seen by some as a weakness, but in the true Christian faith and the knightly code was considered more of a strength, much in the way a mother bear is strong against anyone who would dare get between her and her cubs.
There are some evident differences between "being beautiful in spirit" and the Knightly Virtue:

First, the former is for all human beings, while the latter is mostly for men, especially kings, knights and warriors.
Second, the former is admitted to be based on the First Epistle of Peter, especially chapter 1, 3 and 5. The chapter 1 of the Epistle of James and the chapter 3 of the First Epistle of John have been also influencing true chrstian people to cultivate this moral sense. The latter, meanwhile, is admitted to be based on David's faith in The Book of Psalms, especially chapters 23, 24, 25, 26, 41, 45 and 62.
Third, the former requires more sophisticated and stronger spirituality than the latter, because the former is one of completely personal virtues and the latter is one of the historical relationships among limited persons.
Fourth, the former is possible to do everywhere forever, but the latter is usually only possible to see in books, plays, movies, games and so on.
Fifth, the former has nothing to do with any violence or killing, while the latter often requires violence to - or the death of - enemies.