The Power of a Bad Example

For years, doctors have been preaching that one of the most important things you can do for your health is not to smoke. Yet nearly every time I visit a hospital, I spot a group of nurses and staffers relaxing outside in a fog of nicotine. It just doesn’t do much for one’s confidence in the health care profession. And it seriously undermines the “no smoking” message that doctors are trying to proclaim.

Now if we can understand that, why can’t we understand the devastating effect it has when people in the world see Christians living lives that are consistently at odds with Christ’s teaching? The apostle Peter warned of precisely that, saying that because of the conduct of some “the way of truth will be maligned” (2 Peter 2:2).

People will use all sorts of excuses for not accepting Christ. Often we can do little about them. But you can at least see to it that no one can use your example as an excuse for rejecting the Lord. As Paul instructed Titus, “in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us” (Titus 2:7-8).