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Direct Answer Based on the transcript, Lactantius exposes the weakness of teaching that is persuasive in words but not embodied in a visible, consistent life—because hearers instinctively test whether the teacher actually lives what he commands. This challenges any preaching culture where a speaker’s content is valued more than his character and daily example.

Support from Transcript:

• Lactantius: if the teacher “does not live by [the principles], his teaching is nullified.”
• He imagines the hearer’s pushback: “First let me see you practice the things you teach, so I will know they are possible.”
• He argues example is necessary: “How will the teacher take away this excuse…unless he teaches them by his example so they can see…that the things he teaches are possible?”
• Summary line: “Men prefer examples to words because it is easy to speak but difficult to act.”
• Bercot ties this to leader qualifications: elders were “proven men” with “established character,” and a man had to be able to “teach by example as well as by word.”
• Modern contrast in the transcript: many deacons/elders today are not seen as shepherds, while teaching is centralized in a “hired pastor,” which can elevate speech over shared, observable discipleship.