Ugh.
What miserable advice.
Have you ever had someone use this on you?
Did you want to strangle them after they said it?
There are people in life who we “look up to” with respect. And we expect those people to live consistent lives. We don’t want to hear people telling us to “do as I say, not as I do.” Especially when our parents say this to us during those growing-up years.
As a youth minister, I had numerous teenagers tell me that their parents told them to behave in ways that these same parents were unwilling to live. Parents saying things like “don’t you dare let me catch you ever smoking ” while holding a cigarette, “don’t you ever let me find out you are drinking” while holding a bottle, “you need to go to church” while unwilling to step through a church door themselves.
Now please don’t get defensive over the three things I just used as examples…we can discuss the merits of these another day. These are just some of the things I heard from teens most often. The point is simply that the inconsistency of such statements when paired with the behaviors is hard for anyone to respect. There is just too much hypocrisy in the phrase “Do as I say, not as I do.”
In the same way as children want their parents to be consistent, we also want to see integrity and consistent behavior in our bosses, police officers, judges, president… anyone who is in authority over us. We don’t want people telling us to be honest if they are deceitful. We don’t want them telling us to “obey the law” when they consistently break it. We don’t want someone telling us we should “be forgiving” when they are full of venom and resentment toward others. So how well do you do in this area of consistent living?
“Right will always be right even if no one is doing it, and wrong will always be wrong even if everyone is doing it.”
Our character is very important to God. Your actions should show your character at all times, even when no one is looking. But we are so good at putting up fake fronts – external actions that in no way resemble our inward feelings. We smile at someone and shake their hands, while we inwardly sneer at them. We say things are great and post a glowing Facebook status to indicate our life is almost perfect when we are actually going through terribly difficult struggles. We can do such a great job at inconsistent living.
Let me give one additional area where many of us Christians struggle with consistency – God’s Word.
“Do you think that the Bible is important?”
“Of course.”
“Do you think it has information within its pages that is important for your life?”
“Certainly.”
“What if I offered you money in an agreement where you could never read the Bible again or hear any words from the Bible ever again? Would you take one thousand dollars to never read or hear any words from the Bible ever again?”
“No, definitely not.”
“What about if I offered you $100,000? $1 million?”
“No, the information in the Bible is too important for me to never read or hear from it again.”
“Come on. Just tell me how much money it would take?”
“There is absolutely no amount you could offer me to make that decision, because there is important information in the Bible from God and if I choose to never read it or hear it again, then I won’t be able to discover what God wants to tell me – the Bible is obviously priceless to me.”
“Well, if the Bible is priceless to you, then how much time did you spend reading it last week?”
How can we say we have a priceless book – a book with a value that cannot be calculated – and yet not read it at all during the week? Do we really believe that the Bible is all that important? If we do, then our behavior should become consistent with our belief?
Let’s get rid of the “Do as I say, Not as I do” attitude in every area of our lives – including regarding God’s Word.
What are other times when have you heard this phrase used (and therefore wanted to strangle the person who said it)?