1 Peter 2:12 “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
Successful businessman Jerry Singleton grew attached to a little boy who was his regular shoe shiner at the train station. The boy was always meticulous in his work, which impressed Jerry. One day, Jerry asked him why he was so conscientious about his work. The boy replied: “Sir, I’m a follower of Jesus, and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if he himself were wearing them.” Years later, Jerry reflected on how he’d seen something so deeply genuine in that shoeshine boy that it proved to be the catalyst to his decision to begin reading his Bible, and then deciding to become a follower of Christ himself. He credited his salvation to the little boy who shined every pair of shoes ‘as if Jesus Christ were wearing them’. Charles Spurgeon once asked a cleaner who was a recent convert what difference choosing to follow Jesus had made in her life. Rather timidly she replied: “Well Sir, I now sweep under the doormats.”
Choosing to follow Jesus totally changes how we live our lives. Or at least it should do. When many years ago my missionary Grandfather was arguing over the original meaning of a text with an African believer, Yosiya put his head in his hands for a moment and then sighed: “You missionaries can defeat me with theological argument, but it is sterile, unless your lives show the truth of what you teach. You are like a soldier with a whole case-full of ammunition but no gun to fire it from. I have only one round of ammunition, my testimony, but it is effective when I fire it.”
Today’s verse shows the purpose and power of living an attractively different good life. May we too choose the one effective round over much ammunition without a gun!
Lord, I choose to live a good life for your glory today. Amen!
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