Looking Good

Let your light so shine before men, that they may SEE your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. —Matthew 5:16

“Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles… that they may by your good words, which they shall BEHOLD, glorify God…” —1 Peter 2:12

A young boy was trying to make some money selling apples at a public market. He would approach people with his basket of apples, and ask, “Apples! Would you like to buy an apple?” He wasn’t have much success.

One businessman who noticed the boy’s disappointment approached him and asked to see one of the apples.  He took the apple and began to polish it conspicuously on the sleeve of his jacket. He then began to stroll casually among the people eating the apple and commenting on how delicious it was.  Then he told the boy to try again.  In a short time he sold every apple. The difference? The apples had been made attractive to the potential customers.

This is a lesson to all of us of how we can interest others in the gospel of Jesus Christ: We must make it attractive to them—show them the difference it has made in our own lives. The Apostle Peter wrote that a wife could win her unsaved husband to Christ without saying a word, just by living a holy life before him (1 Pet. 3:1). As Paul wrote in Colossians 4:5, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without.” We are Christ’s “living epistles, “known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3:2).  Since “man looketh on the outward appearance,” we should therefore “polish” our outside so others will want what we have on the inside.

The beauty of a changed life can attract others to the One who makes us beautiful. You are a walking advertisement of the Gospel of Christ.  Make it look good!