Seeing Is Believing

      All Christians must recognize their duty and obligation to preach the gospel. Paul wrote in II Timothy 2:2, “And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

         We all must come to realize that a great deal of the teaching that we do is in the form of example. There are many in the world who are watching you and everything you do, in an attempt to see if you live the type of life you say you do. For them, seeing is believing!

The apostle Paul felt a great responsibility both to be a good example himself and also to encourage others to be profitable and responsible examples. In Philippians 3:17, Paul exhorted the brethren to “join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” In an earlier writing, Paul encourages the saints at Corinth to “be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1) Paul had qualified the type of example he had chosen to be and makes it clear to all of us that it’s not enough to just be an example, but we must be an example of one who is following the perfect example of Jesus Christ.

In 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul entreated Timothy to be an example in work, in manner of life, in love, in faith, and in purity. About the same time Paul, in a letter to his friend and companion Titus, encouraged this: “in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”

      These admonitions from Paul and others are just as valid for and me today as they were some 2000 years ago when they were first penned. Are we such examples? Look over these passages and make sure we are!

~Eric Paquette