1 Corinthians 4:16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
The Apostle to the Gentiles has put himself forward as the
best possible example for the believers in Corinth to follow. As the founder of
the church in Corinth, he has a deep
concern for the congregations being scattered across the Roman world. In Paul’s
second letter to the church at Corinth he recounted the many ways he suffered
for the gospel’s sake. Remember, the Lord Jesus had promised that he would suffer,
he surely did! As Paul listed his suffering he added to it “apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my
anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28). There is not anyone
more worthy of patterning our life after than the Apostle Paul!
Obviously, we do not want to pattern our life after his life
before he was saved. He had applied himself to studies of the word of God and
that’s good. He was so zealous that…
He had persecuted the church. Let’s look to his own testimony in Acts 26:9-11. “I myself was convinced that
I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And
I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after
receiving authority from the chief priests,
but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And
I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme,
and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
These verses are part of Paul’s testimony in court before
King Agrippa. He had said that he was very glad to be able to stand before the
king. Paul had been so fervent in sharing his faith in that setting that he
caused the king to say, “would you
persuade me to be a Christian?” To which Paul replied, “I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day
might become such as I am — except for these chains.” (Acts 26:28-29).
Here Paul gives the short version of his life before Christ.
He had opposed the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He locked up many believers in
prison. He had voted to condemn Christians to death. He had gone to foreign
cities to persecute the church. It was on one of these trips that he met the
Lord Jesus himself. A light shone around him and he heard a voice asking why he
persecuted the speaker. In reply to that question,
he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” In reply,
the heavenly voice said, “I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting.”
Paul’s testimony was so fervent that he caused the king to
question his own faith. King Agrippa knew a good deal about Christianity but he
had never put his faith in Jesus. And so far as we know, he never did.
Paul was a persecutor of the church and at the same time…
He was chosen by God from before his
birth. Let’s look at
Paul’s testimony in Galatians 1:15-16. But
when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might
preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
Paul wanted the Galatians to understand that he had not been
seeking God but God had been seeking him. Paul was not seeking to know God
instead he was seeking to destroy this new belief system called the Way! He was
not converted by a man or even by the testimony of those he had been arresting.
God had set him apart before he was born!
Several passages in the New Testament affirm quite clearly
that God chose people who would be saved before they were saved. God’s choosing
is called predestination. Generally speaking,
people are pretty resistant to the idea of predestination. Instead, they want salvation based on free
will.
The Bible tells us that we are born spiritually dead. We know
that a dead person does not have any ability to make decisions or respond to
the world around them. In order for a dead person to make a decision life has
to be restored to them.
Restored might not be the right word. Life has to be given to
them. Part of the struggle we have with salvation is that we wanted it to be
our choice and not God’s. I admit that the process of salvation is not easy to
understand. Simply put. we who were spiritually dead have been made alive by
God and as such are “born again”! Jesus described the process in his
conversation with Nicodemus as being like the wind. We don’t know where it comes
from we don’t know where it goes we only see the results of it. So, before Paul
was born he was chosen. Scripture indicates that God’s choosing us reaches back
into the time before creation. Our names have been written in the Lamb’s book
of life before the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8; 17:8).
Paul recognizes that he was saved by God’s choice and
consequently…
He was willing to give up everything
for Jesus. Let’s
turn to Philippians 3:7-8. But whatever
gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed,
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may
gain Christ.
“Whatever gain I had” was substantial. So far as his human
qualifications were concerned he was all good. He was born in the right family
on the right side of the tracks so to speak. He was taught — even trained —
practically from his birth to be a good man of God. He lived in a world where
he would memorize large parts of Scripture. He would have followed the
direction of his teachers and his parents without hesitation. So far as the
Mosaic Law was concerned he was blameless! He belonged to the conservative
party in Israel. They were called Pharisees. Being a Pharisee was not a
negative thing. They were very careful to follow the Law of Moses. Such a
person would be welcome in pretty much any good church today. He had much to
consider as being valuable. But he counted it all as loss in order to know
Christ Jesus as Lord. He had come to realize that the things of this world are
all temporary. When he gave up everything he took on a new pattern of living.
Paul’s pattern was Christ. Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 11:1. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
To be like Jesus. Should be our goal. Paul takes a little
different direction. If the Corinthians were having trouble imitating Jesus
they could imitate Paul and let Paul be an imitator of Jesus. Paul was the
founding pastor of the Corinthian church. As such, he had the right to admonish
the church in the same way as of a father with his children.
All of us should live our lives in such a way that if a
person imitated us, or patterned themselves after our lifestyle. They would not
be wrong! They might not be perfectly doing what God wanted them to do because
we are each individually programmed in
the way we live to serve God. But we should always live in such a way that we
could be a pattern for others.
Such a life brings peace. Let’s turn to Philippians 4:9. What you have learned and received and heard and seen
in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Paul encourages the Philippians to do the things he had
taught them. Not just in class either but in observation. What they heard him
say and what he did should be their spiritual education. Living out the
Christian life is something that requires practice, practice, practice. Again
and again, we need to focus on how to
live the Christian life. Such a life brings peace. Here God is described as
being the God of peace. As such he will be with us when we are obedient to him.
Paul has instructed the Philippians to avoid anxiety by
taking everything to God in prayer and living lives filled with thanksgiving.
When we do this a peace of God, beyond human understanding, will guard our
hearts and minds. We should not only be able to follow our leaders and pattern
our lives after them but we should recognize that…
Imitating Christ increases peace. Let’s look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from
me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
He is able to increase our peace by taking the burden off our
shoulders.
First of all, if we are laboring and carrying a heavy load,
Jesus calls us to come to Him. His promise to us is that he would give us rest.
Now rest is not just stillness. From time to time people advise me to get more
rest! What I have discovered is resting can be pretty boring! I realize that is
necessary. The Bible tells us that even Jesus took time off and rested (Mark
6:31). So there is a real need in our physical being to rest along with Jesus.
After we come to Jesus for rest then we join with Him in our
work. He tells us to take his yoke and learn from Him. This is an example that
would’ve been understood by his people. They lived in an agricultural world and
the concept of the yoke as shared labor
and training to be very common to them. The process was simple when a new beast
of burden must be trained to the yoke it would be put in a double yolk with a
strong well-trained animal on the other side. No matter how much the new
trainee resisted he would be dragged along until he learned to cooperate. Then
the new trainee would no longer have to carry the load himself. He would join
in the shared load. So Jesus views us as the trainee and He as the trainer. As
we allow Him to share our load He makes life easier. In fact, he promises, “my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light.” When it seems that we are overburdened we
should turn aside to some rest and then consciously join with Christ in His
yoke allowing Him to carry the load for us.
We will find…
In imitating Him we become more like
Him. Let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 3:18. And we all, with
unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord
who is the Spirit.
In this passage we see the Apostle recalling Moses’
experience in the wilderness. Moses had gone up on the mountain and met with
God. There, God carved out the 10 Commandments on two tablets of stone. When
Moses came down off the mountain his face shined because he had been talking
with God. The people of Israel were afraid to come near him. Moses did not want
the people to see his shining face fade so he put a veil over his face (Exodus
34:29-33). On the other hand, we do want people to see the glow of God on us.
As we come closer and closer to the Lord we are being transformed into his
image. The more we empty ourselves and draw near to God the more He reflects
Himself through us. We have no glory in ourselves. We are like the moon. Let me
explain. The moon is dark it has no light of its own. When we see what we call
“moonlight” we are simply looking at the reflection of the sunlight off the
moon. As the shadow of the earth slowly passes over the moon the light gets
smaller. Then when it comes to full shadow the moon is totally dark. From that
point forward the shadow moves off the moon until finally it comes to fullness.
That’s exactly what we want to see in ourselves. We want our lives to reflect
the Lord Jesus Christ and as we draw nearer to Him we will move closer to
reflecting Him in the world.
Therefore…
Being like Him should be our primary
goal. Let’s turn to 1 John 3:2-3. Beloved, we are God’s
children now, and what we will be has not
yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And
everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
We are God’s children and as such we should reflect him in
the world. I watch children as they grow up and see that, as time goes by, they
looked more and more like their parents. Not only do they look more like their
parents they even act like their parents. That is certainly not a bad thing.
Jesus is coming again to gather the church to Himself. When
he appears we shall be like him. As we become more and more conscious of our
family relationship with our heavenly Father and our older brother, Jesus, we
will consciously purify ourselves.
This only happens because we have committed our life to him
and he has begun to grow us into his image. Salvation is not just “joining the
church”! Salvation is a consequence of our belief in Christ and our response to
his invitation. What are we to believe? That Jesus took our sins into his own
body and nailed them to the cross. We must confess that Jesus is Lord. We are
to believe that God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, raised
Jesus from the dead.
In that same power, God
shapes us into the image of Jesus Christ!
For our sake, God made
Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that
in Christ we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English
standard version. 2001. Wheaton, Ill, Standard Bible Society.
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