Setting up the right filter for lies vs the truth
Follow Your Leaders (Part 1)
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You, however, have followed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance,
2 Timothy 3:10 (NET)
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This is Paul’s final letter.
He expected to die soon, a martyr for his faith.
And he left these parting words to his protege, which we get to learn from as well.
How blessed we are to learn from the wisdom of our leaders who’ve helped us along the way.
Of course you can learn from the written wisdom of long-gone leaders. I’m a big fan of getting books from those who have already run their race, fought their fight, and left a legacy for us to follow.
There’s nothing left for them to do that could disappoint us; they’ve already made all of their decisions.
Unfortunately, sometimes living leaders we admire make bad decisions and disappoint us.
I can think of quite a few former Christian leaders who wandered from the faith…
Sad, really. But even then there’s much to learn.
Obviously, those lessons now have to go through a new filter: Is this still valuable because they’ve chosen a path I don’t want to follow?
Which is a filter beyond the normal, “Barean” filter.
That is, how does this teaching line up with God’s Word?
That is the most important filter for anything we learn.
The cool thing is -- at least I think it’s cool -- we can learn great truths of life even from unChristian sources.
Because all truth is God’s truth.
Anyway, I’ve waxed poetically enough on learning from leaders today.
More tomorrow on the different pieces of this verse.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2026 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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