Just What Is An Example?

Daily Bread

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From the apostle Peter’s first letter we read,

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (I Peter 2:21 – NASB)

If “you” are a disciple of Christ, if “you” have professed Him as Lord and Savior, if “you” have been born again by the Spirit of God, if all these things are true of “you,” then “you have been “called” for” a “purpose.” “You” are a disciple, a believer, one born again, one “called” by God for a “purpose.” Be sure that God does not do things haphazardly. He has a definite “purpose” for those He has saved . . . He has a definite “purpose” for “you” (as always, Romans 8:28-29).

The believers Peter was writing to were in the midst of suffering persecution. Persecution that came because they were followers of Jesus the Christ. To them and to us, we who have or will also suffer persecution, the apostle tells us that we have “an example . . . to follow” through it all. We are to “follow in His steps.” Jesus is our “example.”

Just what is an “example?” Zodhiates expounds on the Greek word here as meaning, “a writing copy, a pattern.” With that we understand that, in persecution, in suffering, we have a “copy,” a “pattern” determined by God for us to “follow;” it is found in His Son. Jesus has given us the “pattern” we are to “copy,” and when we do this we “follow in His steps,” in the “steps” of Him who is our “example.”

I sense that as the time in which you and I live continues to unfold, Christians are going to suffer more and more persecution. There will be in all of this a separation. Real believers will be made manifest. Those who are just acting out a role will become evident, and they will distance themselves from “Christ,” from the Word of God. There will come upon those who have “been called” troubling times.

As these times come, and be assured they will come, there is “an example for you to follow,” there are “steps” to “follow in.” It is to walk as He walked. In the midst of persecution, of suffering, of troubles that are brought on by Satan and his world, we are “called” to “follow in His steps.” For “Christ” is our “example,” He is the One we are to “copy,” He is our “pattern” for the “purpose” God has for those who are His “called.”

Have a good day. . . and as you walk, if persecution, if suffering should come, recall to your mind the example you have in Jesus and follow in His steps.

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