Do as I Do, as Well as What I Say, Philippians 4:9
"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-- put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
Can we say this? Can we honestly say to a new believer, "Whatever you see in me, whatever you hear from me, put it into practice"? I would bet that most of us would have to say no. We are all far from perfect, and Paul was no exception. How is it then that he could have the confidence to say such a thing?
I believe that what Paul said had less to do with his life being consistently righteous, and more to do with what he did when he was in a trial, what he did when he was rebuked, what he did when convicted for sin by the Lord. Paul was not righteous in his own efforts, and when he stumbled, when he sinned, when he fell short of the glory of God, he repented, he asked forgiveness from God and turned away from his sin.
It is a common phrase among unbelievers to say, "do as I say, not as I do". This phrase is the complete antithesis of everything that the Bible teaches, everything that God stands for. We are to live lives so devoted to God, so focused on Him, that we can say to others, "do as I do, as well as what I say". Our lives are to be a living example of what the Bible teaches.
Many non-Christians have the misconception that the Bible is a list of rules and regulations telling us what we can and cannot do to meet God's high and holy standards. But nothing could be further from the truth! The Bible is a love story of God's love for a fallen and sinful people, and His mercy and grace in paying for their sins Himself and making a way for Himself and all of mankind to spend eternity together.
God knows our sinful tendancies, and although He demands holiness and righteousness and judges sin and iniquity justly, He knew that we ourselves could not live up to His standards, and that in His righteous judgement we would all perish. So God took the form of flesh and became a man, Jesus, and came to live on the earth. Man could not reach up to God, so God reached down to man.
Jesus lived a pure and sinless life; He is the only human being to never commit even one sin. Qualified by His sinlessness, and because of His undying, unmatched love for mankind, He chose to die a sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary in order to take away from us God's righteous indignation. He took the full force of God's wrath, paying individually for each and every sin committed by all makind throughout history. He could take away the seemingly infinite quantity of sin we've committed because He is infinitely pure and holy!
Now, by faith in Christ's sacrifice, by putting our trust in Him and asking Him to be our Lord and Savior, we have right standing before God. We no longer face God's just judgement for our sins, for they were all paid for on the cross. However, that doesn't mean we will never sin again. As long as we are on this earth, as long as we are in these bodies, we will still fall into sin. This doesn't mean that we can't be living examples of Christ's love and purity though. It means that we will be able to model even better God's love to a fallen people!
Whereas we aren't to have an attitude of "holier than thou", thinking we are better somehow because we have been saved and know Christ, we are still called to live clean and pure, holy lives. This is our witness that Christ can turn change a life from evil to good, from sin to righteousness. And when we do sin, we ought to turn away from that sin and repent of it, asking for God's grace and forgiveness in humility. When we confess our sins, God is just and faithful to forgive us. This is what Paul did; this is what he asked that we model and practice.