Imitation

Imitation

There is one comment that my kids make that simultaneously makes me very proud and frightens me to death. It’s when they say, “I want to be like you, Dad.” What a beautiful expression, and yet the weight that puts on me to be a godly example of a man, husband, and father is unbelievable. 

In 1 Cor. 4, the apostle Paul is instructing the church in Corinth to listen to him because he has shown that he loves them, and appreciate what they have because it’s not that way for everyone. He includes this passage about how he and his group of apostolic leaders are treated and viewed because of their ministry. Then he gives them a peculiar challenge.

1 Corinthians 4:10-17 (ESV)

10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,

12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;

13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 

Did you catch that? He says be imitators of me. Live your life the way that I am living mine. Look at me and do what I do. It’s a challenge that most of us don’t give to people very often. 

He calls himself their “father” in Christ...their spiritual father. The one they should look at and say, “I want to be like you, Dad.”

Imitation. That’s what children do with their parents. They imitate them. It’s natural. God designed us that way. In the same way, Paul says, we should imitate those that God has given us as spiritual fathers, and we should realize that we are to be people that have lives worth imitating. 

The reality is, if you are a parent it’s easy to see this imitation play out. But, even if you aren’t a parent, you are called to be a spiritual parent to somebody, to lead people to living a life like yours. It’s a daunting and honoring task. One that instills angst, and excitement. There are questions to consider, though. 

1. Who are your spiritual parents? Like, who do you look up to in the faith and think, “I want to be like that.”
2. Who are your spiritual children? Who do you notice naturally coming under your leadership because they see something in you that they want?
3. Do you have a life worth imitating? Somebody, somewhere, sometime is going to begin imitating your life. Would you say that yours is with imitating?

Love y’all. 

Charlie