Imagine coming to a stop light. The light has all three colors glowing steadily. You look at the other lane of traffic trying to determine which light is representing the truth. Should you go? Should you stop? Should you proceed cautiously? Again, you look left and right to discern what the stop light is indicating. But you are really not sure. There is really no way to tell. The stop light is completely void in a case such as this. What if it shows two colors? Again, completely void. Unless the stop light is indicating only one color it is completely ineffectual.
I think sometimes we Christians can be like this. We say one thing but live another. We signal one thing with our words. And another thing with our actions. People look around and try to determine which signal is truth. Unlike the stoplight, they can usually reach a conclusion. The actions are going to speak much louder than the words. We become ineffective for the cause of Christ. Just like the stop light, we bring confusion. Confusion to the world that needs Christ.
We say that we love others. But our actions indicate that our own agenda is primary. We say we love God. But we entertain ourselves with the things He hates. We say we think it is important to evangelize the world. But we don’t do it. We say that idols are sinful. But how we use our time and resources says otherwise. We say stealing is wrong. But we think nothing of stealing precious time from our boss.
This makes me ponder. Do I give more than one signal? Am I indicating by my words AND my actions that I am a follower of Jesus Christ? Or do my words say one thing and my actions say another?
May I be very careful with my words today. And may I follow up my words with actions. Being sure to say and live the same thing so that only one signal is given when people look at me.
Matthew 23:3