“Let no one despise or think less of you because of your youth, but be an example (pattern) for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 AMPC).
This brief passage provides us with five key areas of interest for anyone who seeks to elicit the kind of respect that reflects well upon God and His Word. The final characteristic that will help us set the right example for others is purity.
A person who exhibits purity is someone who interacts with others in a clean, right, honorable, and Biblically appropriate manner. This type of conduct is important to remember, especially when we consider how easy it is to allow others (who may not be interested in doing what is clean, right, honorable, or Biblically appropriate) to set our standards.
For instance, we may allow ourselves to be pressured into an uncomfortable course of action simply because everyone else seems to be following the same course. But while crowdsourcing may represent a valuable tool for business-related tasks, “following the crowd” inevitably serves as a poor basis for making good spiritual decisions.
A better standard for a God-honoring purity is given to us in the following chapter of 1 Timothy…
“Never use harsh words when you correct an older man, but talk to him as if he were your father. Talk to younger men as if they were your brothers, older women as if they were your mothers, and younger women as if they were your sisters, while keeping yourself morally pure” (1 Timothy 5:1-2 GW).
We should also remember that this standard of purity also relates to our internal thought life as well. For example, Jesus used the area of sexual immorality to express the importance of internal purity…
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).
So a person who sets the example in this area is someone who is sure to gain the respect of others, even among those who refuse to accept or recognize the importance of honoring God with their lives. While the effort to secure this kind of respect may not be easy, it is something that’s possible to achieve when we prayerfully seek to establish God-honoring standards in the areas of speech, life, love, faith and purity.