LEAD BY EXAMPLE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

1 Corinthians 4:6

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been around someone who told you that you should do something only to do the exact opposite in the way they lived?

It really is at the heart of hypocrisy, right?

We know this as the prototypical "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude and I don’t think I have ever met anyone that actually liked that approach.

When we go into the Gospels, we find Jesus railing against the Jewish religious leaders repeatedly because they were placing their self-generated legalistic rules on their believers while not adhering to those standards themselves.

In other words, Jesus was a proponent of the axiom we use a lot today, “Practice what you preach.” He always sought to lead by example and wouldn’t ask His disciples to do anything that He wasn’t willing to do Himself. Christians today need to follow His lead.

This is what we found Paul doing during the course of his robust missionary work. He ever sought to make sure he carried out his ministry work with humility and deference to Jesus, the One who called him to share the Gospel with other, the Savior who provided His apostle (and all those who follow Him) with identity.

After all, Jesus is the One who puts the “Christ” in Christian and all who believe in Him are expected to live Christ-like lives. They are supposed to model their lives by way of the example Jesus set and then lead others to that kind of life by leading disciples to Christ by His example.

As we look at the sixth verse of 1 Corinthians 4, we find Paul telling the Corinthian believers that both he and Apollos had applied his Christian instruction to their own lives. They had adhered to the scriptures and Jesus’ calling with obedience, not straying beyond what was written, what was commanded. In doing so, they kept the focus solely on Christ and not on anyone else but Him and this is what they wanted the Corinthian church to do as well.

Paul and Apollos modeled the kind of behavior they wanted the Corinthian Christians to adopt. They realized that the spotlight wasn’t supposed to be on themselves but rather the Lord who called them to serve. And so they made sure the Jesus followers of Corinth knew that although each apostle did specific work on the Lord’s behalf, it was the Lord who pulled everything together. He was the main source of all things that happened and deserved the honor and glory.

In working to create a harvest of new Christ believers, Paul sowed the seeds of the Gospel and Apollos watered them but it was God who gave the growth. In the end, He would be the One who would bring a person to full maturity in Him and His Son. Therefore, the church should have its focus on their God and His Savior Son Jesus and them alone, not on anyone else like Paul or Apollos or Cephas.

Paul and Apollos worshiped and served God and Jesus alone. They led by example and showed us how we need to behave as Christians today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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