HAVE you ever had the experience of yawning simply be cause someone in your presence yawned? A simple illustration of the power of influence. Influence is felt in every area of life. Even the animal kingdom is included. The Talmud puts it succinctly: "Sheep follow sheep." An old Chinese proverb declares, "Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow." When Solomon sent sluggards to learn from the ant, he knew that no one preached better than they. Yet how much talking does an ant do? An old Spanish proverb spoke truth: "Live with wolves and you will learn to howl."
The power of example is little understood and less believed by most of us. How little we realize that the power attending the person who practices what he believes is the most potent force in moving others to action. There are a few conscientious individuals in the world who will make decisions in favor of any truth from the weight of evidence alone. But the majority will never be moved to obey God's moral or natural laws from hearing a mere theory. The influence that stems from the living testimony of those who practice what they preach is what counts most. These are the ones who have an experience with the things of God. These are the ones who have found delight in not only knowing truth but in practicing it.
How much influence would Paul have had both in and outside the church if he could not honestly say, "Agree together, my friends, to follow my example. You have us for a model; watch those whose way of life conforms to it" (Phil. 3:17, N.E.B.).
There is little doubt that Paul was a great advocate of practicing what we preach. "Paul carried with him the atmosphere of heaven. All who associated with him felt the influence of his union with Christ. The fact that his own life exemplified the truth he proclaimed, gave convincing power to his preaching. Here lies the power of truth." —The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 510, 511. (Italics supplied.)
Seventeen centuries later the German philosopher Immanuel Kant forcefully advocated the same principle. He declared, "So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world."
The element of leaven is used in the Scriptures to portray the power of influence either for good or for evil. Paul asked the Corinthian believers, "Don't you know how a little yeast can permeate the whole lump?" (1 Cor. 5:6, Phillips). The Corinthians had not recognized the power of influence. In this case Paul was discussing the deeds of an evil doer. If one defiant transgressor remains in the church, his corrupting influence leads others to follow in his footsteps. It is often more healthful both to the individual and to the church to separate him from membership in order to protect the body from an evil influence and in order to wake up the evildoer.
"No truth does the Bible set forth in clearer light than the peril of even one departure from the right—peril both of the wrongdoer and to all whom his influence shall reach. Example has wonderful power; and when cast on the side of the evil tendencies of our nature, it becomes well-nigh irresistible.
"The strongest bulwark of vice in our world is not the iniquitous life of the abandoned sinner or the degraded outcast; it is that life which otherwise appears virtuous, honorable, and noble, but in which one sin is fostered, one vice indulged. To the soul that is struggling in secret against some giant temptation, trembling upon the very verge of the precipice, such an example is one of the most powerful enticements to sin."—Education, p. 150.
However, influence is a two-sided coin. What is true of evil is true of good. The influence of a person who does right grows to amazing proportions. What a contagious example is exerted by those who take a stand on God's side. Elijah, Gideon, and Daniel were individuals who lived what they preached. See a whole nation being brought back to God because a lone man stood on a mountaintop and dared to stand for right. The masses are fickle. Take a stand for right, and others will stand with you. History is not shaped by majorities but by minorities who know what they want and where they are going. Christ proved this point when He started the Christian church. From a human standpoint, illiterate peasants and fishermen who constituted the first general conference appeared most feeble and unpromising. Critical on lookers could not conceive of this little group making any impact upon the world. But they did not reckon with the influence of even a small number of people who were transformed and elevated by the power of the Holy Spirit. These Spirit-filled men practiced what they preached!
They knew they could not live unto themselves. They knew that a thousand fibers of influence connected them with their fellow man. They knew they could preach a better sermon with their lives than with their lips. They knew the best and liveliest commentary on the Word of God was a good example.
"The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity. Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that it is impossible wholly to resist."— The Acts of the Apostles, p. 511.
