Thought for May 21st "an example to imitate"

Today, more than ever before, we live in a herd environment, a human herd.  Mass advertising in a great variety of media confronts us hour after hour, this creates a herd mentality. We reflected on this as we read Paul’s words this morning.  He told the Thessalonians that we “give you in ourselves an example to imitate.” [2 Thess. 3 v.9]  What do we imitate? What or who do we take as our examples in life?  An equally important question – why do we see them as examples that we might feel inclined to imitate?  Bad examples surround us!   But there are other things that are in some aspects good, but are dangerous in other ways! In these cases we need to acknowledge the good but be conscious of the potential for danger, seeing the aspects that could be deceitful, as Paul did.       Do you remember what he wrote about sin in Romans ch. 7?  Verse 11 challenges our understanding.  Paul wrote, “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me …” Yet, the next verse says, the “law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”  What does he mean?  It appears to us that in studying the law and keeping them they became proud of their righteousness, that pride, deceived them! Now he was a follower of Christ, Paul sees life through Christ’s eyes, he now has what we might call, a down to earth perspective. He  writes, “you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it … that we might not be a burden to you.” [v.7,8]   A @Christadelphians Video: ************ This video was produced by the ChristadelphianVideo.org project, arranged and supported by Christadelphians worldwide. ** ChristadelphianVideo.org ** Main site: https://cdvideo.org/ NEW ON CHRISTADELPHIANVIDEO.ORG! You can follow us online at some of our other services.. #1 Our Main site... https://cdvideo.org #2 Our podcast on Podbean... https://cdvideo.org/spotify #3 Our podcast on Apple...https://cdvideo.org/podcast-apple #4 Our podcast on Anchor...https://cdvideo.org/truth-talk #5 Our facebook...https://facebook.com/OpenBibles #6 Our Whats App... https://cdvideo.org/WhatsApp #7 Our Instagram... https://cdvideo.org/Instagram #8 Our X... https://cdvideo.org/x #9 Our YouTube Channel... https://cdvideo.org/@christadelphians #10 Our Audio site Scripturescribe.com... https://cdvideo.org/mp3 #11 https://youtube.com/@christadelphians?sub_confirmation=1 #12 Our Substack https://thebiblestandard.substack.com/ ** Podcasts: Podcast on Podbean...https://cdvideo.org/podbean Podcast on Apple........https://cdvideo.org/podcast-apple Podcast on Spotify......https://cdvideo.org/spotify ** Social Media: Facebook/openbibles Whats App... https://cdvideo.org/WhatsApp Free group...Shared links and comments on the daily reading, ( also links to advance viewing on many videos before public release) Instagram... https://cdvideo.org/Instagram X... https://cdvideo.org/x YouTube Channel... https://cdvideo.org/@christadelphians Our Substack - https://thebiblestandard.substack.com/ ** Other resources: https://cdvideo.org/www (A hour hour presentation about ChristadelphianVideo.org) https://cdvideo.org/exhorts (Over 1000 video exhortations many including the emblems (Full service)) https://cdvideo.org/compare-expound (A free quarterly digital magazine published for the discerning and inquiring mind.) https://cdvideo.org/wss (What saith Scripture resource centre, verse trails, videos, on 1st principle subjects.) Where possible, each section includes our suggested video presentations as well as articles and links on the various topics. linktr.ee/cdvideo A page with all our links. ** Watch / read / Listen to other thoughts for the day on our site here https://christadelphianvideo.org/tftd/ #Christadelphianvideo #thebiblechannel #christadelphianstalk #Christadelphians #bible #openbible #Gospeltruth #gospel #Christadelphian #truth #podcast #discoverthebible #cdvideo