I recently had the opportunity to preach at my church. My pastor has been preaching through
Philippians and somehow my week coincided with the passage I now believe pulls
the whole book together. I don’t know
how he let such a good passage slip to me, but I was glad to have it. This time studying through it, I was reminded
of a focus of Paul that I hadn’t thought much of recently—imitation.
The main verse I based my sermon on is Philippians 3:17: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep
your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” Paul also tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Paul seems really passionate about seeing the
Christian life lived through imitation.
I find this interesting, especially participating in a society that
encourages us to stand out from the crowd and be original.
Human nature is to imitate.
As kids we imitate our parents or our favorite TV character. In sports, we imitate the great athletes with
the best baseball swing or the best basketball shot. When learning a new job, we imitate the
actions of those with more experience.
These are examples of our imitating that we do quite deliberately. We often don’t admit to the myriad of ways we
imitate those we spend time with, whether in our body language, our word
choice, or even our dress.
Paul tells us to imitate him and those who also are living
life Christ’s way. This is a great reminder
to me—and it cuts both ways.
As a Christian I cannot expect to grow better at living the
Jesus way without looking to those who are better at it than I am. Certainly not everyone that calls themselves
a Christian is worthy of imitation. The
majority of my sermon was spent discussing some of the contrasts between those
who live the Jesus way and those Paul calls the enemies of the cross of Christ.
We must deliberately seek out those who are truly following in the
example of Christ as revealed in scripture.
I need to study and model myself after those who pray better than I do,
serve better than I do, forgive better than I do, and love better than I do.
As a (fairly) mature Christian, it also means that Paul is
telling my younger brothers and sisters to imitate me. Jesus warns us that “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it
would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and
to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) [ESV] Ouch!
Who are you imitating?
Would you be proud or embarrassed to see young believers
following in your example?
