Job’s character is described by four adjectives. He was perfect, complete and rounded out in character; humanly speaking, there was nothing uneven or lacking in him. Many men have excellent traits, but are deficient in other elements which go to make up a complete man. They are, for instance, truthful, but lacking in kindness; amiable, but inclined to be weak. Job was a well-balanced man. Next, he was upright. This describes his relationship to others. Righteousness marked his ways, as he himself knew all too well. Then, he feared God; this is the “beginning of knowledge” and must be taken at its full value. Job was not, as some have thought, an unregenerate man; there was life in his soul. He was a child of God, not a sinner away from Him. Unless this is seen, much of the exercises through which he passed will lose meaning. Lastly, he “eschewed evil”; his outward walk corresponded with the state of his heart. All this was morally excellent; it was not the false pretense of the hypocrite, but the genuine character of one of whom God says, “There is none like him in the earth.”
S. Ridout (adapted)