Let’s read Ephesians 5:1, 2;
1 Corinthians 4:15, 16 (NLT)
“IMITATE
GOD, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He
loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God”
“For
even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only
one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached
the Good News to you. So I urge you to IMITATE
ME”
It was the Apostle Paul who
wrote the above two sentences in his letters. Why would he say “imitate God”
and also “imitate me”? Is he self contradicting? Did he change his view
overtime?
He is neither self
contradictory nor did he change his view. He meant what he said on both
occasions. We need to understand both the literary context and also the self-application
in both these seemingly controversial views.
IMITATE GOD – If you read
the passage previous to chapter 5:1, you will realise that Paul is urging the
Ephesian Christians to live as children of Light and not as children of
darkness. Specifically speaking he is urging them to get rid
of the acts of darkness like - bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and
slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour and instead embrace the
acts of light - being kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just
as God through Christ has forgiven you.
IMITATE
ME – It is interesting to see how Paul urged the Corinthian Christians to
imitate him after telling them “I sometimes think God has put us apostles
on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to
die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and angels alike”
(v 9). When Paul said “IMITATE ME”, he meant “IMITATE THE CHRIST IN ME”
for we can associate Paul’s being a
spectacle of ridicule and shame to the entire world with Jesus Christ’s
public ridicule and death on the cross. In verses 3, 4 of the same chapter he
said “As
for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human
authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m
right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide”. Paul
is clearly not establishing himself as a “great” individual, on the contrary he
is saying that just as he considers everything (of great earthly value) apart
from Christ as garbage (Philippians 3:8); just as he chose to imitate Christ in
His selflessness and sacrifice, he is urging us to do the same. He is urging us
to “imitate him” in his imitation of Christ.
We
are social beings and people who bring us up (parents & elders) have much
influence in the way we talk, behave, think and prioritise. We are naturally
inclined to ape the things our parents and elders do which satisfy “selfish”
desires and urges. For example anger, gossip, greed, religious urgency, disrespect,
foul mouth etc. By nature we are more willing to ape the bad than to imitate
the good.
It
is ok to look-up to men but not to blindly ape their mannerisms, style of
speech or behaviour. You and I are made unique and are made to be unique. Instead we should
imitate the Christ-likeness in them. It is however impossible to find someone
who has fully emptied his/herself and is completely filled with Christ. But,
there are a select few even in this generation who are seeking to be
transformed into the likeness of Christ day-by-day, just as the Apostle Paul
did. Imitating such people is not blindly aping their flesh (behaviour,
mannerism, accent etc.) but imitating their spirit (a willingness to practically
follow Christ even through adversity and disapproval by other people).
Are you aping men or
imitating God…??
