Reading “Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1
Influence is the subject which these words suggest for our present meditation—the influence of Christ reflected in the influence of the Christian. “Follow me, as I follow Christ.” The power of influencing others is a wonderful and responsible gift of God. Every individual possesses it. Unknown though his name and obscure though his sphere may be, he is the center of a circle touching at every point for good or for evil all who come within the radius of his moral power, the potency of which cannot be measured, the results of which can never be fully known.
No person is absolutely neutral in this life—none so humble as not to take hold on the vitalities of some individual’s inner being, thoughts, and feelings. High or low, rich or poor, we throw off from us, and we receive in return, trains of influences which shape the opinions, mold the characters, and determine the destinies, both of ourselves and others; “No man lives to himself.” It is this power of action and reaction—this reciprocity of moral influences—which gives a character, reality, and responsibility to all our thoughts, words, and deeds in this present life, and which makes every man, in every circle, to a great extent his brother’s keeper. But consider Jesus.
His influence was individual. There was an individuality in His life which acted powerfully upon all whom it reached. But we forget our individuality! We lose ourselves in the crowd. We follow it, act with it, and thus we forget that, with regard to the religious opinions which we hold, the moral influence which we insensibly exert, the solemn reckoning which we are finally to meet: “Every one of us is to give an account of HIMSELF to God.” Let us keep in mind the fact, that individual responsibility, duty, and influence, are untransferable. We cannot make them over to a church, or to a society, or to another individual. Born as individuals, we live as individuals, and as individuals we shall be judged.
The example of Jesus was holy and sanctifying. All who came into His presence could feel how dreadful, yet how attractive, holiness was! Is ours such? Can we in sincerity say, “Follow me, as I follow Christ?” Is our example as a religious professor such as to influence others for good? As a parent, such as you would desire your children should imitate? As a husband or wife, as a brother or sister, as a master or mistress, such as to mold for holiness in this life, and for happiness in the life to come, those whom it daily reaches? Is our example such as to attract them with the beauty of holiness, to impress them with the excellence of Jesus, the service of God, and the solemnity of eternity?
If you wish that others be a holy reflection of you, you yourself must be a true and holy reflection of Jesus. Let the light of your influence so shine, that others seeing may rejoice in it. Be a “living epistle of Christ” so that all may be affected by the reading thereof. Thus men will behold your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Taken from Consider Jesus: Thoughts for Daily Duty, Service, and Suffering by Octavius Winslow, 1870 (public domain).
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