"Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ."
-Paul, 1 Corinthians 11:1
Paul did something I have not seen others do. He offered himself as the model of what a Christ follower should look like. As I read these words this morning they once more stopped me to think about what that would look like in my life and yours.
Paul was so confident that he understood the Christ life and was living it that he invited others to follow him and imitate his life. "Boys, just watch me and do it like I do it" would be Paul's words to a young disciple.
It demands two important things in a life, 1. that you know what a life lived as an imitator of Christ looks like, and 2. that you are actually living that way. It demands a clear map of the route and a confidence you are on the path as a disciple yourself...that you are in fact imitating Christ.
But this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing in our lives, isn't it? Dads, are you telling your sons and daughters, "just watch me live the Christian life and you will be ok"? Pastors, are you inviting others to follow you around and imitate your life, your words? You should!
Paul has given us the foundational principle of discipleship- modeling. "Imitate me as I imitate Christ" are heady words to say to someone. It means you must know where you are going, what it looks like, and actually be going the right way. It means you know that others are watching you, following you, imitating you.
If someone is imitating your life will they get it right? Will they be a follower of Christ or a deformed version of one? Have you invited someone to imitate you as a Christ follower? If not, what do you need to change? Where are you going that you wouldn't want another to follow? Are you modeling Christ for others to follow?
This is our greatest need in the church today...men and women following Christ and inviting others to imitate them in the way. What do you need to change to make that offer to another? Could it be that most of us don't know where we are going in the first place? If you have never offered this invitation to another what must you change to invite another to follow you?
"Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." What an amazing invitation from the pen of Paul. I've never been invited to follow another in this way, nor have I made the invitation. I wonder what would change if we did.......
2 comments:
The concern that stops me is know that while I am on the way, I have in the past and will in the future let flesh slip into view. We live in a society that looks at the mistake and says that is the life style. Pride is the next big stopper. To appear prideful is almost a certainty with that statement. All I can claim, is if you see good in me, it is when the Lord is showing His power through me.
Nice comment, Mike McM... i think finding a line between saying I am clothed in Christ, I know him, his ways and which way to go, and knowing and showing all to someone, faiures, problems, struggles, and showing them how to go through them builds not just character, hope, perserverence, faith, honesty, trust, the truth, but so much more. It shows Him. It provides, IMHO, in my mind, a way to show how Christ is our path our light, the way to be salt and earth and show how the holy spirit, his gift to us, inheritence to eternety, can work in us whose minds are supbject, whose bodies, life, decisions, anything, is worth consulting the one and only jesus christ who is the living god, living in me, as an example, flesh, mmistakes, how his love and guidence and repentence, etc.... it all models christ.
How is someone else going to know if your life is really modeling Christ if we don't show the highs and lows, the way we worship, keep idols away, everything between him and me is him and me and nothing else. No one will have this as a model, unless you show all. Because the bible shows all. The old testement, the new, without the law as legalism and works to get to heaven, but so much more. To love, everyone with the Lord showing his power through you in all these and more situations. I love this topic. Equipping not only the saints but those who are watching, wondering, wanting, as we pray as Jesus did, their life will change as well as the final glory being HIM. Always, because every good and perfect gift comes from above.
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