Let’s get personal for a little while today. How do you think people who know you feel about your faith? If we were somehow able to get people to look right past us to see Jesus, it would be obvious that faith is real and that people need to come to him for life. Jesus’ words were powerful because his actions and daily life matched his words completely. John called Jesus “The Word” and said the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” So, Jesus was really preaching the gospel even when he wasn’t saying a word. His life was a message from God. When he reached out to touch the leper, to drink from the Samaritan woman’s bucket, to hold the little children and to lay his hand on the casket to bring a young man back to life, or when he blessed the woman who was unclean from bleeding but made her way through the crowd to touch his garment, he preached the love of God powerfully.
So, what are we preaching when we aren’t talking? More than that what does our life say about what our words may be saying? In Titus 2 Paul went down the list of people to tell everyone they had an important work to fulfill in the work of Christ. He spoke to the older women, the younger women, the older men and younger men; he then spoke to Titus as the evangelist about his life. Finally, in verses 9-10 he spoke to slaves. “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” Slaves were at the very bottom of those who were influential in the world. I don’t think Paul was promoting slavery or saying it was right. He recognized the situation as it was and knew that many who were converted to Christ were slaves. He wanted them to know that no matter how unimportant they might feel in the world, their lives mattered deeply to God and their influence mattered deeply to the cause of Christ.
The Old King James Version translated this phrase to “Adorn the doctrine of God.” To adorn is to arrange a thing in proper order so as to look it’s best. So Paul’s plea is that the slaves are to be taught that they by being honest, hard workers who could be depended on would make the teachings of God more attractive to the world.
We sometimes see the signs today that declare, “Black lives matter.” Certainly they do, as well as all other lives. No matter who we are or what race, sex or background our lives matter. No matter how young or old, whether born or still in the womb, all lives matter. Whether we are in our middle years of life or old and feeble, our lives still matter. To count anyone as disposable is to abuse one made in the very image and likeness of God Almighty. But let me explain that as a Christian our lives matter because the way we live each day in the world is either making the teachings of God more attractive or they are dulling, if not making the teaching just plain ugly.
When we think of the ISIS fighters today in Syria, Iraq and parts of Africa, they are making the teachings of Islam seem ugly and unattractive with every car bomb or every attack on someone who doesn’t agree with them. But when we meet a Muslim that is kind, considerate and helpful, they make that same teaching seem attractive. Your life matters to the cause of Jesus Christ. How you conduct yourself in school, in Starbucks, in the grocery store or Wal-Mart or on the children’s playground is either making the teachings of Christ more attractive or less so, every day? People who know you and your faith are making judgments about the things you believe to be true based on what they observe in your life every day. You may think, “I don’t want them to do that.” Regardless of what we want, it is what happens all the time. It is the way you make judgments of other people’s faith so why wouldn’t we realize they do the same to us.
So, the message is, “YOUR LIFE MATTERS.” Live today in a way that makes your faith attractive and draws those who know you best, closer to God all the time. Be a magnet for Christ today.
Leon Barnes, see Leon’s blog at “leoninlittlerock.com”