If we were to summarize Paul’s farewell instruction to the elders in Acts 20 to the bare bones concepts, they are called to follow Paul’s example of possessing the character of Christ and the message of Christ. Are those the two concepts that define your Christian life? Oftentimes, it’s easy to think our Christian life is wrapped up in attending church and Bible studies, going to conferences or doing Bible reading plans, listening to sermons or even hanging out with other Christians.
Those are all great things, if and only if they are a means to an end or ends, namely to become more like Christ and to be able to articulate his truth with more clarity and more precision to expose the wrong thinking in our own hearts and in others.
And perhaps one of the best measures of how we are doing in these areas is to ask this question: Can others follow my example and become more like Christ and more accurate in the truth? This certainly applies to those with children, but, according to Eph. 4, it also applies to every Christian in the body of Christ. So is your example causing growth and encouragement in the body or is your example rather unhelpful to the maturity of the body? Paul’s example was mightily instructive for the elders of this church as they watched his life and listened to his teaching.