⁶ And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. ⁷ For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. ⁸ We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹ We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. ¹⁰ Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10

Dear God, it is the second half of verse 9 that caught my eye today: “…we wanted to give you an example to follow.”

There are different ways to give an example. First, I can be a hypocrite and do something for show and then not live that out in my private life. For example, never drink or do drugs in public, making a point of how bad those things are, and then doing it in the privacy of my home where no one knows. The same can be true for cheating on my taxes, delving into pornography, or whatever. Last year, it came out that a prominent Christian leader had been involved in a multi-year affair with another woman. Any moral high ground he had was destroyed. In fact, this makes me think of David and Bathsheba. He took the woman, another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and then killed her husband. But when Nathan confronted him with the story of a man who took another man’s prize sheep David was furious. After this incident, David lost the moral high ground with his family and did not have the credibility to deal with it when his oldest son raped one of his daughters.

The second way is to humbly walk with you and actually live the example 24/7, whether anyone is looking or not. It doesn’t mean one doesn’t have a sinful slip here or there. I’m not saying one has to be perfect. But one can also be transparent and vulnerable about their slips and then even use that as an example for others. But what we hide, Satan uses to get leverage on us. It’s the spot in the bottom of the tent through which the camel can get his nose, and before you know it there is nothing stopping the camel. I’ve seen people try to hide secrets and they absolutely destroy themselves, their relationships, and their effectiveness in life. I heard a pastor one time talk about how he had been sexually abused as a child, and he kept that secret until he was in his late 30s. It affected everything about him as he strove to keep that secret. It was only when he told someone about that secret and then the fallout that had happened in his life as a result that he became free. Now, he can’t tell enough people because he finds they have a secret they need to turn loose of as well.

Father, I got off the subject a little, but as I sit here and work through this, I think one of the keys (beyond legitimately pursuing relationship with you) to living a truly good-example life is to be humble and vulnerable with people around you. If there’s no facade at all, then it’s easier to be authentic, by definition. If I have a facade then I’m not being authentic. Help me to be authentic before you, before my wife, family, and friends, and even, as appropriate, my community. And not for my glory, but so that I can point people to you. So that they might be drawn to you and discover you, worship you, and follow you in a whole new way. So they might find the narrow path and walk it.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen