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When Apostle Paul was writing to Timothy and instructing him to be an example of the believers, he was equally speaking to us, having at the back of his mind that those embracing the faith will normally look up to those who have been there before them and emulate their ways of life.<\/p>\n
Being an example of the believers connotes that the believers\u2019 lifestyle ordinarily should be far higher in standard than those of unbelievers.\u00a0 That is why a believer should not in any way compare themselves with unbelievers.\u00a0 When the Lord Jesus commanded the disciples in Matthew 28:20 to teach them to observe all things whatsoever that He has commanded them, it includes teaching them with their lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Jesus said in John 14:9, \u201che that has seen me has seen the Father\u201d.\u00a0 This He said because He was the express image of the Father in all His ways.\u00a0 This is what the lesson is all about, to be an example of our Lord Jesus Christ to others.<\/p>\n
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The Oxford dictionary of current English defines \u201cexample\u201d as a person or thing seen in terms of their suitability to be copied.\u00a0 The above definition set the tone of what the topic is out to address.\u00a0 Naturally, a man always looks up to those ahead of him to copy their way of life and develop their character along that line.<\/p>\n
Apostle Paul writing in Philippians 4:9 said, \u201cthose things which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me do\u201d.\u00a0 He set himself before the people to be copied.<\/p>\n
There are positive examples and also negative examples.\u00a0 If your lifestyle is contrary to the word of God and profess to be a Christian, you are setting yourself as a negative example to other Christians.\u00a0 But if your lifestyle is in consonance with the word of God and live in obedience to the Lord, serving Him diligently, then you can say like Paul, \u201cbe ye followers of me as I am of Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n
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The word believer here means a disciple of Jesus Christ, so the person who can be an example to other disciples must himself be a disciple.<\/p>\n
The first step to being a disciple is to be born again, John 3:3-8.\u00a0 The process is for you to accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and personal Savior, believing that He came to die for your sins and rose again from the dead and lives for evermore, John 1:12.\u00a0 You must continue in His word as it is written in John 8:31, \u201cif you continue in my words so shall you be my disciples indeed\u201d.\u00a0 This shows us that only those who continue in His words are His disciples indeed.\u00a0 You must also seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you can be effective in your discipleship, Acts 1:4-5,8.\u00a0 Only those who are disciples INDEED can be examples to other believers.<\/p>\n
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When Jesus was choosing His disciples, He used one word for all of them, which was, \u201cFOLLOW ME\u201d.\u00a0 The life of the believer is to follow the footstep of the Master.\u00a0 The Apostles followed in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and in Acts 2:42, the Bible said that the disciples continued in the Apostle\u2019s doctrine.\u00a0 Those embracing the faith always look at those who are already there to copy and learn from them.\u00a0 Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, \u201cyou are our epistle, known and read of all men\u201d.\u00a0 We are light in the world, as light cannot be hidden, even so our lifestyle cannot be hidden.<\/p>\n
The followership is always there.\u00a0 You are following and others are following you.\u00a0 It is a continuous act.\u00a0 Because of this, even those things we have power to do, we must give them up so that we can make ourselves an example for others to follow, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9.\u00a0 Anything that will make your brother to stumble, you must give it up.\u00a0 We must be able to tell others to follow us as we follow Christ.<\/p>\n
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1 Timothy 4:12 specified some areas where we should be examples.<\/p>\n
The Bible says, let your word be seasoned with salt, so that it will minister grace to the hearers, Ephesians 4:29, Colossians 4:6.\u00a0 The Bible has a lot to say about the use of our tongue.\u00a0 It can kill, it can make alive.\u00a0 It can destroy the labor of many years in a moment, Proverbs 18:21.\u00a0 We should not use vulgar language at home before our children?\u00a0 The way we speak goes a long way to mode their language.\u00a0 The Bible says that we are going to give account of every idle word we speak, so we should pattern our words as the saints of God.<\/p>\n
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, \u201cif any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, all things are become new\u201d.\u00a0 The implication of this is that there must be a change in our ways of living.\u00a0 Our behavioral attitude will change to conform to the standard of God.\u00a0 Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, \u201cbe ye perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect\u201d.\u00a0 He did not give us a suggestion but a command.\u00a0 For us to be perfect, we have to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, Ephesians 4:24.\u00a0 Let us think on Philippians 4:8 and pattern our lives to it.<\/p>\n
Jesus said in John 13:34-35, \u201cby this shall men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another\u201d.\u00a0 To love one another is the new commandment that the Lord gave and emphasized on John 15:12.\u00a0 Love is kind, is not easily provoked, it is not puffed up, it is long-suffering, it envies not, seeketh not her own.\u00a0 It does not behave unseemly, thinketh no evil, rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, 1 Corinthians 13:5-7.\u00a0 Love is the fulfillment of the law.<\/p>\n
Galatians 5:16 says, \u201cwalk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh\u201d.\u00a0 This shows us that a man patterns his life either spiritually or worldly.\u00a0 If we walk in the Spirit, we view our world from the spiritual perspective, the way we run our homes, our businesses and our offices.\u00a0 We should not drift from being in the Spirit to the body which is earthly and will naturally desire the things of the world.\u00a0 We are born of the spirit by the will of God so let us walk.\u00a0 Paul enjoins us in Galatians 5:25 that if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.<\/p>\n
Hebrews 11:6, \u201cWithout faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must first believe that He is, and He is a rewarded of them that diligently seek Him.\u00a0 Faith is your absolute trust and confidence in the ability of God to respond to any challenge before you.\u00a0 The Bible says, \u201cthe just shall live by faith\u201d, Galatians 3:11.\u00a0 Living by faith in God is the life that Christians have been called unto and our daily practice of total dependence on God will encourage others to do the same.<\/p>\n
Matthew 5:8; Psalm 15:2, \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God\u201d.\u00a0 Purity refers to the cleanness of heart.\u00a0 Jesus said that out of the hear proceed evil thoughts, murders, fornication, adultery, etc., Matthew 15:19-20.\u00a0 That which defiles a man comes from the heart.\u00a0 That is why David in Psalm 51 asked God to create in him a clean heart. \u00a0No man can know what is in the heart of man, but his actions and utterances show what is in his heart.\u00a0 We are to demonstrate purity of life to those following us.<\/p>\n
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There are benefits in living an exemplary life as a believer.\u00a0 The benefits include commenddations, gains on earth and in eternity.<\/p>\n
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The Christian faith is not \u201cdo as I say and not as I do\u201d, but it is \u201cfollow me as I follow Christ\u201d.\u00a0 Apostle Paul demonstrated this in many ways by always being in obedience to the voice of God.\u00a0 When Peter was carried away by the presence of the Jews from Jerusalem and separted himself from the Christian gentiles in Antioch, Paul withstood him to the face and told him that what he was doing was wrong, Galatians 2:11.\u00a0 His deep insight of the scripture and the application thereof, brought Peter back to the true meaning of circumcision and \u201cnip in the bud\u2019 what would have brought division in the body of Christ.<\/p>\n
We must live our daily life in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ so that those following us will not be led astray.<\/p>\n
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1 Timothy 4:12 \u2013 \u201cLet no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being An Example of the Believer Central thought: \u00a0Live the life of Christ for others to emulate. Text: 1 Timothy 4:12-16; 1 Corinthians 11:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 When Apostle Paul was writing to Timothy and instructing him to be an example of the believers, he was equally speaking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundayschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}