BELIEVER MODELS

The mighty error of the world has been to take for granted what someone has called "the rightness of the customary."

The values, attitudes and practices of the majority in any given period constitute a code accepted as binding upon all members of society.

Any aberration from this code on the part of anyone excites immediate attention and may even bring the charge of being "mentally ill." And unless I miss my guess I believe that the advocates of the customary are preparing to use the threat of being charged with mental illness as a whip to bring everyone into line. Incidentally, they tried that on Jesus and it did not work.

It is a law of the human soul that people tend to become like that which they admire most intensely. Deep and long continued admiration can alter the whole texture of the mind and heart and turn the devotee into something quite other than he was before.

For this reason it is critically important that we Christians should have right models. It is not enough to say that our model should be Christ.

While that is true, it is also true that Christ is known mostly through the lives of His professed followers, and the more prominent and vocal these followers are the more powerful will be their influence upon the rank and file of Christians.

If the models are imperfect the whole standard of Christian living must suffer as a result.

VERSE

And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

— First Thessalonians 1:7

THOUGHT

Paul valued the believers in Thessalonica as models for believers elsewhere. They had become models by modeling their walk after the apostle and his team. How priceless are those who model Christlikeness before us in their daily living!

PRAYER

Thank You, Lord, for those who through the years have been models for me.

https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/