The Function of Role Models

Our Personal Heroes

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.—James 5:10

Carl Hagensick

We all have personal heroes or role models. They have helped shape our lives. We have used their examples to assist in defining who we are. Their role may have shifted from person to person over time, but they served as ideals and their lives provided goals for ours.

The late president John Kennedy wrote Profiles of Courage to provide examples of valor in the political spectrum. The Bible contains a vast compendium of role models in the spiritual sphere—individuals of faith, of ­patience, of spiritual dedication, of constancy, of prayer, of all the virtues that go into the make-up of a righteous life.

Even role models have role models. The apostle Paul, perhaps giving us the highest standard of selfless devotion in his tireless spread of the gospel, refers to an unknown sister as his spiritual “mother.” “Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine” (Romans 16:13).

We may well speculate that she was the wife of Simon, the Cyrenian who carried Jesus’ cross (Mark 15:21) and that at some point in Paul’s earlier days she had left an indelible impression on his mind. Are there not those that each of us have met in the first days of our Christian walk who have turned our feet in the right direction on the paths of righteousness?

Ezekiel’s Role Models

The cryptic prophet of the Babylonian captivity had his heroes as well. He mentions three of these in Ezekiel 14:14,20: Noah, Daniel, and Job. Each of these was an example to him of a faithfulness that was accompanied by the courage to stand alone for God and his commands.

Noah had the faith to not only build an ark before the times when rains had ever threatened the earth with overflowing rivers, but to continue preaching righteousness for 120 years despite the fact that no one but his own family heeded his message (2 Peter 2:5).

Daniel, still a young man at the time of Ezekiel’s prophecies, maintained fidelity to ­Jehovah despite his meteoric rise to the highest positions of power in the pagan Babylonian empire. His later courage in proclaiming the fall of that empire to the invading Medo-Persians directly to king Belshazzar demonstrated the accuracy of Ezekiel’s evaluation of this paragon of piety.

Job, despite undergoing the greatest tribulations at the hand of the strongest of adversaries, not only refused to “curse God and die,” but also withstood the fallacious arguments of the three well-meaning friends who had come to comfort him and failed so miserably with their misconceptions of God.

Earliest Role Models

Usually our first role models are our parents. We look to them for guidance and often view their lives as the pattern for our own behavior. The parent’s relationship to each other and their actions as parents often form the template for our own behavior in those same roles in later life.

The apostle Paul saw these influences in Timothy, a young Christian he mentored, when he wrote of the youth’s faithfulness: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (2 Timothy 1:5). We know little of these two women but they will live in lasting memory for the salutary effect their lives had on Timothy.

A mother’s loving interest in her child has a profound influence on his future life. Even when unheeded in early life, it is frequently called to memory in life’s declining years. Bathsheba, as the mother of Solomon, may furnish an example of such loving concern for a somewhat wayward son.

The last chapter of Proverbs is ascribed to one King Lemuel, a name that Professor Strong and others consider a pen-name for Solomon (see Strong’s 3927). It is a “prophecy that his mother taught him” (Proverbs 31:1). The burden of this prophecy is a mother’s ­concern for two temptations which would face her son (wine, verses 4-7; and the choice of a wife, verses 10-31). It may also be that the first six chapters of Proverbs were written by his mother for they are proverbs addressed to Solomon by one who calls him “my son” (Proverbs 2:1). It is in these passages that he is given the advice to pursue true wisdom and value it as “silver” and “hid treasures” (Proverbs 2:4). It may well have been his mother who sought the services of Nathan, the prophet who denounced the illicit union of David and Bath­sheba, to be his tutor (see Reprints p. 4286).

This position of parents as role models is encouraged by Paul: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1-4).

The attached promise that they should “live long on the earth” implies that it was through this strong parent-child bond that the commandments of the Lord should be passed from generation to generation and that it would be by the keeping of these that the hearer could enjoy extended life.

Fathers are admonished that, in administering this mentoring role, they are not to do it in such a way as to raise resentment and anger by the child, but are to serve as teachers and nurturers of those thus put in their charge.

Later Role Models

As life progresses beyond early childhood, the function of role models often falls to older siblings, friends among a peer group, or stars in the athletic or entertainment worlds. These are generally less trustworthy examples than parents. If they live exemplary lives, they provide proper goals to which a young person may aspire. If, however, their lives do not show virtuous traits, they often lead others astray.

The Bible provides illustrations of each. Jonathan, a noted warrior in his own right, undoubtedly was one of the role models for the young David. His valor in battle as well as his unselfish friendship provided high standards for the young shepherd of Bethlehem. The young Nehemiah had undoubtably heard of Daniel, who provided a role model for maintaining faithfulness to God and an interest in Jerusalem while serving in the court of an occupying empire.

On the other hand, the ambitious Adonijah perhaps was led astray by his older brother Absalom’s duplicitous tactics. The apostle Paul warned of ambitious leaders who sought, by example as well as by word, to “draw away disciples” after themselves (Acts 20:30). He also admonishes older sisters to act as role models for the younger sisters: “The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:3-5).

Role models are useful to a youth only to the extent that they represent the principles of Christian behavior. Paul lays down the principle concerning himself: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Role Models for Young Adults

The utilization of role models does not stop with the adolescent years. Such examples are profitably used by Christians throughout their lives, but only as they provide proper illustrations of godly conduct.

These should ideally be found among the ­elders of the flock. The apostle Peter admonishes the elders with these words: “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being en­samples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). In a similar vein we find Paul admonishing his young protégé, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

While Paul does not say to be an example to the believer, but of the believer, the two go hand in hand. He delineates some five or six areas of behavior in which an elder should be exemplary:

In word: Not only in the study of the word and preaching thereof, but even more importantly in the control of the tongue that all one’s expressions be to the glory of God and neither self-exalting nor demeaning of others.

In conversation: The Greek word here signifies behavior. A wise man has well noted, “You are the only Bible the world may ever read.” Our conduct speaks louder than any well-spoken words we may utter.

In charity: Not only in the charity of generosity, but in all matters of life love must rule the actions. It is only as life is lived for others that its meaning is manifest to either our self or the beholder.

In spirit: While these words are missing in all the better manuscripts, they nevertheless contain a proper thought that a proper role model will be one who controls his temperament and manifests a mild, meek, and forgiving disposition.

In faith: Faith, in a noble life, will demonstrate a reciprocating faithfulness and will also develop an implicit trust in the total overruling of one’s affairs by a wise and caring heavenly Father.

In purity: The life that would best influence others must conduct itself according to the highest ethical and moral standards.

The Best Role Model

While there are many worthy lives to emulate, there is one that stands out above all others. That is the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

He was the example of humility in the washing of his disciple’s feet: “For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).

He was the example of how to bear suffering and affliction for others: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

His actions were the manifestation of God’s own character (1 Timothy 3:16). He himself testified that the works he did were not his own, but the works of God: “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19).

A Witness to Others

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews contains a litany of faithful witnesses from Old Testament times (see the article “Faith’s Foundations,” p. 27). These form a primary list of role models for a Christian. In chapter twelve the roles are reversed: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

The word “also” suggests that as those who witnessed their actions surrounded the worthies of ancient times, so a Christian is surrounded by a great “cloud of witnesses.” It is mandatory, then, that a worthy standard be displayed. The example is that of defeating besetting temptations and running zealously the Christian race course.

Christian lives serve not only as examples to others at the present time, but they will set the standard for the future kingdom age when the lessons of applied obedience in this present evil world will furnish examples for the behavior of resurrected mankind. Then it can be truly said that the most oft-repeated prayer has found its answer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).