Fathers represent Christ to their children, so what they do speaks more loudly than what they say; they provide either a godly example or a carnal, worldly one. Rapha, the giant of Gath, illustrates the poor example. He raised his sons, including Goliath, as men of war who hated Israel. Even after Goliath fell to a youth, an evident miracle, Rapha never showed humility or told his sons that a mightier God was at work. War after war, he let each son die in turn, in effect offering them to his pagan gods by repeatedly throwing them against Israel (I Chronicles 20:4-8). Ornan the Jebusite stands in contrast. Though descended from royalty and from a people long at war with Israel, he recognized the God of Israel and David as His chosen ruler, submitted humbly, and gave David his threshing floor and offerings (I Chronicles 21). His sons followed that good example and lived. A bad upbringing, however, is no acceptable excuse. Grown children must evaluate the models they were given and choose rightly, as Rapha's adult sons could have done but did not. Parents must live what they preach, and all can look to the perfect example of the Father and Christ.

Poor example damages credibility and harms everyone influenced by it. Example is contagious, so when a parent or leader sets a poor one, the whole family or group suffers the consequences, and children in particular mirror what they see. Words and conduct that conflict make a Christian a false example and a false witness of God's way. Credibility is lost through deception, passing off lies as jokes (Proverbs 26:18-19), covering up mistakes instead of confessing them (Proverbs 28:13), bluffing about what one does not know, and breaking promises, which leaves others feeling cheated or unimportant. Poor example also shows in bad manners, which flow from the heart: harsh, corrupt, or idle speech, bitterness, wrath, and malice, along with interrupting, distracted listening, and endless talking. Such habits suggest one's own words matter more than anyone else's. The disciples James and John gave a poor example when they wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village; Jesus rebuked them because He came to save lives, not destroy them. Peter's repentance and Judas' bitterness illustrate the difference between godly sorrow and merely regretting consequences. Christ is the remedy, the perfect example whose steps believers are to follow (I Peter 2:21), and even small actions matter.

A good name, meaning a reputation built action by action over a lifetime, is worth more than great riches (Proverbs 22:1; Ecclesiastes 7:1), and bad conduct can quickly ruin it. Ecclesiastes 10:1 says that dead flies spoil the perfumer's ointment, and so a little folly spoils one respected for wisdom and honor. Reputations take years to build but only minutes to destroy. Ambassador College students, wearing college sweatshirts, wrecked resort furniture and threw pizza in a restaurant. As a result, the resort barred all Ambassador students and the city of Longview, Texas, no longer welcomed them. Their poor example brought disgrace on everyone who shared the name. Those who have taken God's Family name carry a heavy responsibility. If they appropriate it and then live in a way that dishonors it, they are worse than the infidels they ridicule. They also risk having their names blotted out of the Book of Life (Exodus 32:33), for the name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7). Misusing God's name is also a violation of the third commandment, which reaches far beyond cursing. Paul warned that God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of those who boast in the law yet break it (Romans 2:23-24). If a person's behavior were someone's only Bible, and that person followed his example, would he be acceptable to God?

America stands as a poor example: it is great but not good, and its greatness is nothing to boast about. God applies the word "great" ten times in Revelation to an adulterous capital city and, by extension, an unfaithful nation. America has received unusual and undeserved blessings, including the providence given to the Pilgrims, a Judeo-Christian ethic behind its Constitution, and abundant natural resources. Yet Christ's words in Luke 12:48, "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required," mean that such blessing increases responsibility for conduct and culture. Instead, America exports a corrupt homegrown culture to the world, and its mixture of good and evil tilts increasingly toward evil. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his 1978 Harvard address, declined to recommend the West as a model because wealth and progress pursued for their own sake bring emptiness and spiritual exhaustion. Even American religion is a sham, and Christianity has grown so weak that African missionaries are sent to re-evangelize increasingly liberal American Christians. Anthony LoBaido likewise observed that when Muslims liken America to Satan, they may not be irrational, since lust, greed, gluttony, and revenge, the values of the Satanic Bible, sound like American society. America had arguably the greatest potential of any modern nation to glorify God but has failed miserably. Its greatness is a liability unless it also becomes a good nation.

Poor example is treated as the contradiction of hypocrisy: knowing scripture without living it. The opening story of a woman arrested because her Christian bumper stickers seemed inconsistent with her cursing and horn-blowing illustrates how profession without matching conduct undermines the witness of those called to represent God. Those called are the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16), and salt that loses its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot. People judge another's religion by conduct rather than doctrine, booklets, or preaching, so a person who can recite memory verses but does not live them presents a contradiction and hypocrisy to all who know him. Taking God's Name in vain means more than profanity; it means bearing the Family Name while not working willingly to live as God does, and God will not hold such a person guiltless. Israel serves as a warning, having been meant as a nation-epistle and witness to the world but never fulfilling that calling, as did Judah, which would not listen to the prophets and was shamed by the obedient Rechabites. Hearing God's words without doing them, as in Ezekiel's day, is also poor example. Clumsy attempts to preach doctrine to neighbors earn only strange looks, whereas honest, tactful conduct in speech, marriage, family, and work gives the right witness.

Setting a poor example is a grave offense in the church because it leads weaker believers into sin. In Matthew 18:6-7, the "offense" Jesus warns about means causing someone to stumble and fall, not merely hurting feelings. Mostly it happens when a weak or immature believer sees another's conduct and concludes that he could or should do the same, as in Romans 14. Because Christ lives in His people, receiving or rejecting a "little one" is receiving or rejecting Christ Himself, as Matthew 25 also shows. That is why leading someone into sin by example is worse than being drowned with a huge millstone around the neck. Offenses will inevitably come from the world, but no Christian should ever be their source within the church. Since a brother may be watching at any time, believers should always set the right example, and obeying God consistently brings freedom from worry about this. Nothing hidden will remain hidden, so hypocrisy is futile. The angels of these little ones also stand before the Father, and those who despise them may find life made difficult until they repent. Jesus' words about cutting off the hand or foot and plucking out the eye show the self-sacrifice required to avoid sin and bad example. The sin lies in the lust behind the act, not in the member itself. Someone who fails to help preserve unity in this way becomes a hindrance and is useless to the church, like refuse burned in Gehenna.