v 16 Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
You may feel that this kind of sentiment hardly needs to be expressed, but the emphasis is on the first couple of words – Stay True. Just compare the thought with that of setting out on a planned diet to reduce belly fat. You start with the best of intentions and persevere for a couple of weeks. Everything goes to plan and you feel so much better for it. The scales almost smile at you as they announce the loss of the first half stone. Of course, you need to be told that was the easy bit; the next half stone is harder. It is the ability to stick with the diet plan that ultimately makes a difference. The old-fashioned word for this is stickability. It is this quality that makes a difference to our own lives, just as it would have done to Timothy. But hang on – it also makes a difference to other people. Timothy was a Church leader and people would have been watching him. The kind of comments that might have been heard then, as now, would have been ‘Well, if that’s OK for Timothy, it must be OK for me too.’ His example would have been noted, so he needed an active conscience.
Now, whether we like it or not, our actions for good or bad influence other people. It is especially true of leaders, but it is also true for the rest of us. We are members of various communities or clubs and our behaviour impacts on the lives of others in the group. A selfish, arrogant, or lying member of even a tennis club will have an impact on the other members. We are under an obligation to ‘Stay true to what is right’ for the sake of other members of whatever community we belong to as well as for the sake of our own conscience.
Has your conscience been pricked over anything recently? And did it cause you to take action of any kind?
—