Paul says (rather uncomfortably for us) that his listeners should follow his example as he follows Christ. He says variations on this several times in his letters. Paul thinks that if you lived with him, and you watched his life closely, you would notice that he really believes what he is teaching. He is practicing what he is preaching. This has a range of applications for preachers and Bible teachers, so let me point out a few.

There is an old saying: practice what you preach. It doesn’t only apply to preachers, of course! The message is that you should live a consistent life. If you say something is important, you need to live it out yourself.

Nowhere is this more important than in churches. Preaching and Bible teaching of various forms requires direct instruction. People are always being told to pray more, to be obedient in specific ways, and to tell others about Jesus. There is nothing wrong with preachers and Bible teachers giving these kinds of instructions! They are in the Bible, and they must be taught. If we never need to change anything in our lives, we are saying that we are perfect and don’t need to repent of some things and start doing more godly things.

We must remember that being someone who teaches the Bible means we are judged more harshly. If you have the privilege of teaching the Bible to other people, they should not only be able to understand your instructions and try to live them out, they should be able to see you as an example of how to do these things.

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