In the 1840s between 80,000 and 100,000 men and women left their homes and businesses and headed for the hills of California looking for that special color in the dirt. They took off over land by train or stagecoach all on the simple belief that they would find gold and strike it rich. For most it was a very personal journey. As David Shayt of the National Museum of History put it, “They were questing, not just for gold, but for personal transformation.”

Interestingly, the Bible also has a lot to say about gold—and a lot to say about personal transformation.

Is there something we can learn from gold? Do the scriptures discussing gold apply to your spiritual life? Yes!

Here’s the connection: God uses gold as a type of spiritual character. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul wrote about building on the foundation laid for us, which is Jesus Christ (verse 11). He then goes on to describe six building materials that represent the kind of character we develop on that foundation. “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is” (verses 12-13).

Notice Paul points out that whatever we build will be tried by fire, and if our work—our faith and character—survives that test, we will receive a reward (verse 14). The Christian who is lax and builds character that is easily quaked or destroyed by small trials is likened to one who builds a house out of inferior material. The Christian who builds enduring character is of greater value to God than even the most refined gold (1 Peter 1:7).

Christ has given us the solid foundation of rock on which to build, but what we build is up to us. Three materials would survive the trial of fire—gold, silver and precious stones—each with varying levels of value. Obviously gold is the most valuable of the three. Likewise, the character we develop can be of varying levels of quality and value.

Are we developing character of gold? Just what is it about gold that describes the kind of character we need? There are many parallels, but two of these, more than any others, illustrate why God finds top-quality character so precious.

Gold Is Rare

For the most part, the true value of gold comes from the fact that it is rare and it does not come easy. Only three to five parts out of every billion of the Earth’s crust is gold. And even then it takes a supreme effort to extract it from the earth. A staggering 20 tons of ore—mostly worthless dirt—must be processed to yield only 1 ounce of gold. In some mines, gold is mined up to 2 miles below the earth’s surface. There really is no other way to get it. Scientists and alchemists have been searching for centuries for a way to turn inexpensive metals into gold, but without success. In the end it all gets down to hard work.

In the same way, godly character is the one thing the Almighty God cannot create instantaneously by fiat. It must be developed over time within someone who is willing and working to develop it—and even then it is the gift of God, created by His Holy Spirit working in us—but it does not come easy!

In California, the average gold miner toiled all day for just half an ounce of gold. It certainly was not a get-rich scheme. It’s not enough to simply want character of gold. We must be willing to work for it all day, every day. Compared to the almost 6.7 billion people alive today, how rare true holy and righteous character is on the Earth—yes, how rare and how precious!

The more diligently and zealously we work at it, earnestly praying that God will help us and refine us, the more character of gold we develop. It’s tough work, and sometimes the struggle can be a painful one. But Paul admonished the Galatians not to be “weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

The fruit of our labor goes far beyond us though. Just as there was a gold rush in California, in the very near future there is going to be a character rush for godly character! Gold will not always be as rare as it is today. The streets of New Jerusalem will be paved with gold (Revelation 21:21). Even in the Millennium, the vast deposits of gold beneath the oceans and deep within mountains will become accessible.

At that time, God will finally pour out His Spirit on all mankind (Joel 2:28), and great multitudes from all nations will flow in a great rush to Jerusalem to be taught God’s way of life so that they too can develop holy righteous character (Isaiah 2:3). Those who have become experts in mining character of gold under the most difficult of conditions—battling Satan and this present evil world—will be in a prime position to help, teach and guide the rest of mankind in producing character of pure gold.

Gold Is Stable

Gold belongs to a group of metals known as the noble metals. These metals are special in that they do not corrode. Precious gold artifacts buried thousands of years ago that are uncovered today still possess their original luster and beauty. Similarly, godly character has lasting, or eternal, beauty.

Satan, formerly the archangel Lucifer, was found to be unstable. God created Him as the very pinnacle of what could be created by fiat! Yet, Lucifer’s character was not like that of gold. It did not maintain its beauty. Satan allowed pride to get in and corrode his character. The result? God realized He could not trust the angels never to sin! That is why God is reproducing His own incorruptible character through mankind. God wants character that He can rely on forever!

Another characteristic of a noble metal is that it is easy to clean; and, once clean, it stays clean. When we consider that God is working to clean sin out of our character, we can ask ourselves: How easy am I making it on God to clean me up? And once a sin is removed, does it STAY out?

Sometimes God has to use fiery trials to purify our character. When He does, it’s all too easy for us to become negative and discouraged. But we can take some inspiration from gold. Gold is not hurt or destroyed by great heat. In fact, not only are impurities in the gold destroyed, but the gold itself undergoes a change in its chemical composition that resets it to its most pure metal state. Trials are designed by God to bring out the very best in the character He is developing in us. There is heat of course—and it does sting sometimes—but when we consider that God is using it not to destroy us but to destroy the impurities in our character, we can truly rejoice in our trials as Peter encouraged us to do (1 Peter 4:12-13).

Before a gold coin is minted, the gold it is made from undergoes a process of continual refinement until it is 99.999 percent pure. That’s about as pure as gold can be measured to be. Similarly, the converted Christian starts out as a mix of mostly carnal nature and an infinitesimally small “earnest” of God’s Holy Spirit—God’s divine nature.

As God works with us and we labor with Him to refine our character, we become more of God’s nature and less of our human nature until eventually we will be born perfect and pure as God is. That is the goal: to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

A goldsmith, when purifying gold, will heat it up intensely, and then scrape away the dross from the top. He will keep repeating this process until he can see his own face reflected in the gold. That is how he knows it is purified. Can we see God going through the exact same process with our own character, scraping away until He sees Himself reflected in our character?

We should ask ourselves, is our character stable? Or do we let things slip and allow it to corrode? Is our character development of the noble kind—producing character that is increasingly purified until it ultimately reflects the royal nature of God?

Like all those prospectors in the California gold rush, our “character rush” is very much a quest for personal transformation. Yes, it’s a difficult process involving a great deal of grueling work, enduring patience and fiery trials—but it does produce that rare character of pure, stable, valuable and refined gold!