“Show yourself an example of those who believe.” 1 Timothy 4:12 NASU
To be your best, you need a lofty ideal to inspire your better efforts.
My thoughts and comments today ask a question, “example or exception?”
Usually people just want to be who they are without the pressure and responsibility of others’ expectations. Unfortunately, life is rarely that simple. You have expectations of other people; they often will have expectations of you. Some of those may be unfair and unrealistic. However, others are normal and healthy, and can be useful in bringing out the best in one another.
You have a choice. You can choose to be an example or claim a right to be an exception. Too often the latter is the choice most frequently taken. Do you know someone like that? Are you ever like that? Rules are for others; procedures are optional for them; protocol is others’ concern; their convenience supersedes another’s inconvenience. Being an exception usually starts with smaller, insignificant things. Who will notice? Who would care, a person may reason. But be advised, such liberties are soon addictive and the growing scale of exceptions you make for yourself become less justifiable.
To be your best, you need a lofty ideal to inspire your better efforts. Without such an example, the assumption of “good enough” produces an inadequate lifestyle. Many years ago, I read a brief differentiation that impacted my understanding. “There are two things, the actual and the ideal. To be mature is to see the ideal yet live with the actual. To accept only that which is ideal and refuse the actual is to be immature. Do not criticize the actual because you have seen the ideal. Do not reject the ideal because you see the actual. Maturity is to live with the actual but hold on to the ideal.” Derek Prince, author/teacher.
It is good when you can recognize, “I may not yet be all that I will be, but by the grace of God, neither am I all that I used to be.” In Jesus, you have a worthy ideal to which you must aspire. Jesus did not leave us without a Godly ideal, “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done . . you know these things – now do them. That is the path of blessing.” John 13:15-17 NLT. Following Jesus is the path of blessing. For the follower of Christ, “good enough is not good enough.”
The Apostle Paul’s message to the younger Timothy was clear: an exemplary life is expected of you as a Christ-follower. “In speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe . . take pains with these things, be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.” 1 Timothy 4:12/15 NASU. That list is practical and sufficiently encompassing.
When warning Timothy of people who are not what they first appear, Paul wrote, “But you know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is . . you know my faith . . you know my love and patient endurance.” 2 Timothy 3:10 NLT. Paul chose to be an example, not an exception. People will watch your life before they will embrace your words. If those differ, your claims are dismissed as untrue or irrelevant. See 2 Corinthians 3:2 NKJV. Making Jesus appear irrelevant may be the worst of offenses. Earn the right to be heard as “an example of those who believe.”
My prayer for you today is that you will exemplify the graces available in Christ.