Document: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db931210.TXT
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   OUR DAILY BREAD                     Friday, December 10, 1993 
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   Read:  Romans 2:17-24 
 
                           TALKING AND WALKING 
       
         You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach 
         yourself?  You who preach that a man should not steal, 
                             do you steal? 
                             --Romans 2:21 
 
    A  professor  of ethics at a leading university was  attending  a 
    convention.  He and another teacher of philosophy had lunch at  a 
    restaurant and were discussing deep issues of truth and morality. 
    Before they left the table, the professor slipped the  silverware 
    into  his  pocket.  Noticing  his colleague's  puzzled  look,  he 
    explained, "I just `teach' ethics.  I need the spoons." 

    By  vocation  that man was paid to instruct his students  in  the 
    principles  of  right and wrong.  But outside  the  classroom  he 
    failed to put those principles into practice.  Profession without 
    practice is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy is a sin. 

    Jesus  reminded the hypocrites of His day that God  had  declared 
    through  Isaiah, "These people ... honor Me with their lips,  but 
    have  removed  their hearts far from Me" (Is.  29:13).  He  could 
    just  as well have cited God's rebuke to Israel through  Ezekiel, 
    "They hear Your words, but they do not do them" (33:32). 

    The Christian life is like a coin.  One side is belief; the other 
    is  behavior.  If our behavior isn't consistent with our  belief, 
    we  are  hypocrites.  By God's enabling grace, we need  to  bring 
    practice  and profession into alignment.  We must walk our  talk, 
    then we can talk our walk. 
      

    Author:  Vernon C. Grounds 

                    Unless my talk about my faith 
                       Is mirrored in my walk, 
                   The faith that glibly I profess 
                        Is merely empty talk. 
                             --Anon. 
 
    THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: 
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    How we behave reveals what we truly believe. 
      
    THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:   1 Timothy 4-6 
 
    
 
 
 
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