![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/girls-and-book-200x300.jpg\")
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash<\/p><\/div>\n
If a church is made up of people who understand 184 current and past issues correctly, but their lives do not show superior conduct, servitude, and holiness, don’t expect an autodialer, computer, printer, broadcast antenna, or cable outlet to compensate for the failure.<\/p>\n
When church members think like the world, dress like the world, talk like the world, and chase money and status symbols like the world, it is the world that is winning them, not the other way around.<\/p>\n
When church members are selfish, egotistical, arrogant, and shallow, then they are not in a position to help the world to a higher plane.<\/p>\n
If our families are splitting up, our children are dropping out, and our homes are little different from our neighbors then our “light” gets rather difficult to notice.<\/p>\n
But if people learn self-denial (Luke 9:23), learn submission to God and care for our neighbor (Matthew 22), learn to be servants (John 13), learn to be content (I Timothy 6:8), learn to invest in family (Titus 2:5; Ephesians 6:4; Proverbs 22:6), and learn to clean out the inside of the cup, not just the outside (Matthew 23), then bright lights will shine.<\/p>\n
“Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light … having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that … they may glorify God<\/em>” (I Peter 2:9-12).<\/p>\n
“Present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God … and be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind<\/em>” (Romans 12:1-2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We are not called simply to know some things different from the world — we are called to rise above the world, and to “be holy” (I Peter 1:15). And when people become that kind of light in the world, they become great evangelistic tools in God’s service.<\/p>\n
And it will far exceed the effect of debates, radio, TV, and mail outs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Scott Smelser I think it works better than radio, better than autodialers, better than showings of Jule Miller videos, better than mailing out a bulletin, better than Dial-a-Bible-Reading, better than debates, better than cable TV. What is it? It’s brethren not being conformed to the world. If a church is made up of people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[451],"class_list":["post-20463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/they-think-it-strange\/","url_meta":{"origin":20463,"position":0},"title":"They Think It Strange","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles-- when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84025,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/better-than-complaining\/","url_meta":{"origin":20463,"position":1},"title":"Better than Complaining","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Leslie Diestelkamp via Think, Vol. 2, No. 5, July 1971 Instead of always whining and complaining about the morals of the world about us, God's people would do better to just demonstrate, in the pulpit and the pew, the qualities that are desirable. Let us say and do, preach\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20047,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-have-pride-in-your-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":20463,"position":2},"title":"Is it wrong to have pride in your work?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about pride. If you are proud of being something of having something, but you don't talk about it or brag about it, is it still bad if you feel like you have something that is better than everyone else? Answer: Pride is a dangerous emotion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36905,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-feel-like-a-failure-because-i-didnt-go-to-college-when-i-had-the-chance\/","url_meta":{"origin":20463,"position":3},"title":"I feel like a failure because I didn’t go to college when I had the chance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Mr. Hamilton, I happened to come across your church's website and decided to write to you in hopes of finding an answer. For more than a year now, I have been struggling to find my calling in this world. I know everyone has a different calling in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65553,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-few-words-about-the-social-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":20463,"position":4},"title":"A Few Words about the “Social Gospel”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edward O. Bragwell, Sr. We \"conservatives\" sometimes speak of the \"Social Gospel\" in a way that shows we know very little about it. Many think the Social Gospel is all about churches sponsoring social activities like social meals and recreational activities. While these unscriptural practices are wrong and may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-kind-of-drugstore-is-this\/","url_meta":{"origin":20463,"position":5},"title":"What Kind of Drugstore Is This?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edward O. Bragwell, Jr. I saw a cartoon posted in a brother's drug store with the caption saying in effect: \"What do you mean you don't have nuts and bolts? What kind of drug store is this?\" Our society expects more from a drug store than just drugs. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}