Marsha's Musings: Good and Bad Examples

Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. (I Timothy 4:12-16 NKJV)

Although Paul is speaking to a young pastor, these words are for all of us...even those of us who no longer can be considered "youth".

We are to be examples to other believers in what we say, how we act, in our love, spirit, faith and purity.  We are to meditate on what Paul says, giving ourselves totally to do them.

That last verse, I believe is saying that if we behave ourselves properly as outlined above and stay true to the Word of God that we will save ourselves and others from a whole lot of heartache and from tripping up in the faith. I do not believe he is talking about saving ourselves or others in the sense of eternal salvation because this would be a works based salvation.  Also, we know that God is the one who saves, we don't save anyone.  

This is a good example of interpreting Scripture by Scripture.  If we took this verse by itself, we would think that we could save others by what we do.  Yes, God does use means, but if He is going to save a person He has the power to do it regardless of what we do in the matter.

The point here is to live in such a way that we are not tripping others up in their faith.  Take for instance the "profane and old wives tales" from yesterday's reading.  These kinds of actions have the potential to trip people up in their faith but certainly do not have the power to keep God from saving them.

Bottom line: Our actions do matter.  Colossians 3 is the best guide I know for how we should act.  Read it every day or find a recording and have it read to you every day.  I have it as my daily wake up alarm, and when I go to bed at a decent hour, I put it on a sleep timer and listen to it as I go to sleep.

It convicted me of my bad attitude this morning when I found someone had not put the taco soup away last night and it had to be thrown out this morning.

The difference between a good day and a bad is our attitude.  It's also the difference between being a good example to the believers and being a bad example to the believers. Which one am I?