You Must Influence Them

According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. (Leviticus 18:3)

Moses was instructed to tell the people of God that they were to live their lives differently. They were not to live as they had seen the Egyptians live while they were their slaves. Nor were they to begin living as the people in Canaan lived, the land God was taking them to possess.

The principle is clear. The place where you stay and the people among whom you stay should not influence you, but rather you are to influence them positively.

Lord Jesus said, “you are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Salt in the right quantity brings taste and increase the value of the food. You are to influence the people positively around you.

Sadly, Christians today often take their standard of conduct from the world and not from God and His Word. Clearly, Christians should be different from the world in their morality, and they should follow a Biblical standard of morality.

We are to be thermostats, not thermometers. The thermometer simply reflects the current temperature of its surroundings. But the thermostat registers the temperature and then seeks to change it to a set standard.

The Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah, “You must influence them; do not let them influence you” (Jeremiah 15:19 NLT)

In the early church, one argument for the truth of Christianity offered by Christians was, “You can know it’s true by looking at our lives.” Today, the Christian world says, “Don’t look at me; look at Jesus.”

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2 MSG)

You Must Influence Them

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