Imitation - The Sincerest Form Of Faith Series

A city girl visited a farm one day and saw some farm animals out in the field. She asked the farmer: “Mister, why doesn’t that cow have any horns?” The farmer thought about that for a moment, and then he said “Well, cattle can do a powerful lot of damage with horns. Sometimes we keep ‘em trimmed down with a hacksaw. Other times we can fix up the young’uns by puttin’ a couple drops of acid where their horns would grow, and that stops ‘em cold. And then… there are some breeds of cattle that just never do grow horns.

“But ma’am, the reason that cow don’t have no horns… is because it’s a horse”

Now, that city girl was right about one thing – a cow ought to look like a cow. If an animal doesn’t look like a cow – well, it probably isn’t a cow.

(pause) So, the question for you today is: what do you look like? I once read that The name "Christian" is derived from the Greek word christianos, which means "little Christ." In other words – if you call yourself a Christian – you ought to look like Christ. You ought to act like Jesus. But, if you don’t look or act like Jesus, you might not belong to Him. SO… DO YOU LOOK LIKE JESUS?

This morning’s text talks to us about how we can look like Jesus. It tells us how we can become “little Christs.” And it says we can do that by imitating Jesus. Ephesians 5:1-2 says “be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” You see, we should walk in love. We should be known for our loving behavior, because we belong to a loving Savior.

ILLUS: I’ve been told that waitresses often hate to work on Sunday afternoons because that’s when churches let out and “church-goers” stop in. And many of those church goers can be the most difficult customers waitresses can have. They can be rude, demanding and harsh. And one of the things that makes that so difficult is that these waitresses KNOW those folks shouldn’t behave like that. These folks are supposed to be Christians, but that’s not how they are acting. They’re behavior is not reflecting how Christians were supposed to be raised!

You see. Christians should be raised to walk in love because that’s what Jesus did. Jesus walked in love.

What I find interesting about our text is that. Our passage doesn’t tell us how to treat people OUTSIDE of church (like waitresses, and store clerks and bad drivers on the road). It tells us how treat people INSIDE of Church. Ephesians 4:32 says “Be kind to ONE ANOTHER, tenderhearted, forgiving ONE ANOTHER, as God in Christ forgave you.” That ONE ANOTHER thing is really important, because that’s code for – fellow Christians. This is all about how we treat the people in church.

Now, the Ephesians Paul was writing to were relatively new Christians. These folks hadn’t been raised as Christians and so, they had no idea how to walk in love. They had to learn and practice this idea. And so Paul spelled it out for them – he wrote: “Let no corrupting (unwholesome) talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32

ILLUS: Years ago, when this congregation was started, most of the folks here were bar hoppers. One the new believers was such a hard character that his friends at work laid odds about how long he’d do this Jesus thing. THEY KNEW THIS MAN. He’d been a rough man who used rough language and he had no idea how to “walk in love.” But once he was baptized into Christ, things began to turn around. He loved Jesus so much that he sought to walk in love like Christ did. He realized he shouldn’t use “unwholesome talk”; That he should say things that would lift up and encourage the people around him; He realized he had to get rid of bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander that had run his life in the past; And he realized he had to learn to be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving his family (and fellow Christians,) just like God - in Christ - forgave him.