"He The Great Example Is, And Pattern For Me..." so goes the old song. Example is a powerful teacher. It was one method employed by Jesus as he instructed his disciples. After supper with them, Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash their feet. This amazed Peter, who at first said that Jesus would never wash his feet. We admire Peter's humility but this time he was not right. Jesus told him unless he washed Peter's feet, Peter would have no part with him. Then Peter did an "about face" and said, "not my feet only, but also my hands and my head" (John 13:1-17).

Why did Jesus do this? He said, "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet" (v. 14). Then he said, "I have given you an exam­ple." He is an example in many ways. Jesus was an example in humility. This is obvious from our present text. He once taught that one could not en­ter into the kingdom of heaven unless he would humble himself "as this little child" (Matt. 18:1-4). Peter said, "yea all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5). Jesus was an example in this, for "he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Matt. 20:28).

Jesus was an example in courage. He did not flinch before the false teachers of the day. He exposed their fallacies; their error and ungodliness (Matt. 23; 15:1-14). When one is "outnumbered" it takes courage to defend what is right. But remember - just one person and God make a majority! Some do not have the courage to defend right and expose wrong as Jesus did.

Jesus was an example in compassion. He felt sorrow for those who were lost; for those who were "scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd" (Matt. 9:36). When he beheld the aw­ful fate of Jerusalem, he cried out in compassion for her (Matt. 23:37). We need to learn this same compassion for lost souls. Some don't seem to care about them. They don't feel sorry for them. We should feel sorry for the sick, the unfortunate, and anyone whose burdens are heavy. But a lost soul should provoke compassion deeper and quicker than anything!

Jesus was an example in love. This was a "new commandment... that ye love one another" (John 13:34). John records, "... having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). The term "unto the end" is better "unto the uttermost" (footnote, ASV).

Examples are to be followed and imi­tated (1 Cor. 11:1). The only good an unfollowed example is, is to the one who sets it! Jesus did not live a life of example merely for his own good, but rather, "... because Christ also suf­fered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21). You may look at the life of Je­sus as he lived upon the earth. See how he acted in any sphere - home, religion or civil - and if you imitate it, you are absolutely safe! - Bill Moseley

 

 

 

So goes the account of a baseball game in which a terrible argument over whether or not a pitched ball should be called a ball or a strike. Some of the players were yelling "it was a strike," and others screamed, "no, it was a ball! Finally the umpire settled the matter with a loud roar: ''It ain't nuthin' till I calls it - and then it’s what I calls it!!"

So it is with men and God. Arguments go on whether or not a certain thing is a sin or not, and these things run all the way from abortion to cheating on income tax forms. But when all the dust clears, there is really only one judgment worthy of consideration, and that is God's. We need to look at God's view of these and other things and realize that whatever is under consideration it is exactly "what God calls it!" We need to learn to be con­tent with that.

How foolish we must look to God as we wrangle over the rightness or wrongness of a thing, and all the while he must be thinking: "Why don't they just look at what I have said on the matter." God's "calls" do not depend upon puny man for their validity! - Bill Moseley