As the first one to trust Christ in my family at the age of seventeen, I was blessed to have a good spiritual example to follow. A dedicated Christian man attended the church where I was saved. He was a skilled mechanic who used his ability to keep six buses going for church bus routes. He put his three teenagers in a Christian school a hundred miles away. He attended every church service, read, and talked about Scripture, and encouraged me to be faithful. I’ve often wondered if I would have grown in the Lord and sought to be faithful without his encouragement and example.

The Apostle Paul recognized the powerful impact of good spiritual examples. He seemed to always be conscious of being a pattern for others to follow. In II Thessalonians 3:7-9 he explains that he, and all who traveled with him, sought “…to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us.” He instructs Timothy: “…be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity,” (I Timothy 4:12). Similarly, he tells Titus to be “a pattern” in godliness (Titus 2:7). Then, when writing to the saints at Thessalonica, he praises them saying: “…ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia” (I Thessalonians 1:7). We are not left to wonder why they were so praised or how they were so exemplary. They were examples in sharing the gospel: “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord…in every place” (vs. 8). They were examples in changed lives after salvation. Paul praised them for having “… turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…” (vs. 9). Paul told them he remembered “without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 3). They “received the Word in much affliction” while still living “with joy in the Holy Ghost” and were faithful “followers” of Paul’s doctrines of grace (vs. 6). With anticipation, they had also begun to watch and “…wait for His Son from heaven” (vs. 10). All of these qualities were important examples for other saints to follow.

Whether you realize it or not, someone in your life needs you to be an example in godliness and dedication to Christ. Right now would be a good time to stop and pray for God’s strength to be the kind of example that makes a powerful, positive, spiritual impact for your Savior.