This morning I would like to talk about being an imitation or being an imitator.
When I think about imitations I tend to think of cheap replicas things with inferior quality and while it might be a good deal, it will not last as long or work as well as the original. A couple of things that come to mind are Rolex watches, various electronic devices and even Cuban cigars.
Many years ago I used to enjoy a good cigar now and again. Well about 10 years ago my wife and I took a day trip down to Tijuana Mexico. For those of you not familiar with Tijuana there are several blocks of Revolution Ave that is similar to a giant swap meet, with different booths selling all types of things. There were leather jackets, jewelry, watches, and much much more. Some were obvious fakes and you could tell they were not worth even looking at. Other items looked real, but you really had no way of knowing. I walked up to one booth that said they sold Authentic Hand Rolled Cuban cigars. I thought, hey that might be good you can’t buy them in the United States. Now if you know anything about cigars, Cuban’s are supposed to be some of the best cigars made. Well I put my professional skills to use and negotiated the price down from $5 each to two for $5. I suspected that they were fake, but I figured why not, they can’t be that bad. Well when I finally had one, I found out I was wrong, they were bad, I had bought cheap cigars from the local party store that tasted better. These things looked like the real thing, but they were far from it, they were cheap imitations.
Now when I think of the word imitator, I tend to think of Elvis impersonators. Celebrity impersonators are not trying to be cheap imitations that are obvious fakes. They tend to go out of their way to be as convincing as possible. They spend a lot of time learning the behaviors and mannerisms of the person they are trying to impersonate. While they never can really be the same as the original, they give it their best effort to emulate them. So there is a big difference between being an imitation and being an imitator.
Now let’s go to Ephesians Chapter 5 where we can hear what Paul has to say about this.
Read Ephesians 5:1-8 (PRAY)
In verse 1 we have Paul talking to us about imitating God. He is not asking us to be cheap imitations that are obviously fake, he is asking us to be imitators in its truest form.
Also in verse 1 we see that Paul tells us we are to be “Imitators of God as dear children”. What do children imitate? Children watch the people around them and learn from them. For the most part children learn their behaviors from their parents. So what is the scripture telling us to do here? Imitate God like a child imitates his or her parents. In other words we are to learn about Jesus attitudes and behaviors and imitate them. We need to be passionate about what Jesus was passionate about and do what Jesus did.
Being Imitators of Jesus is a message we find throughout the New Testament.
John 14:12 ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing’ NIV
Here it is pretty clear if we have faith in Jesus, we will do what He has been doing. To me this is telling us that imitating Christ is not an option, if we have faith we will do it.
John 13:34-35 ‘A (I)new commandment I give to you, (J)that you love one another, (K)even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35"(L)By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."’ NASB
Here Jesus is telling us to Love as He has loved, in other words imitate His behavior. Imitating Jesus is how the world will know that we are different, that we belong to Him.
Ephesians 4:32 tells us ‘And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even
as God in Christ forgave you.’ NKJV
Again we are to imitate Jesus behavior, He forgave us, so what are we supposed to do? We are supposed to forgive others.
These are but a few of the many examples that can be found in scripture in which we are told to be like Jesus, were we are told to do what He did, were we are told to be imitators of Jesus. I have heard it said many, many times that if you find a theme in scripture, if something is repeated, it is something that you need to pay close attention to. This is something that we need to learn and make a part of our lives.
So far we have established that when we are told to be imitators of God, we are not to be some cheap imitation that only looks like the real thing. We are to emulate Jesus, we are to be Christ Like in our attitudes and behaviors.
The question now is what does that look like? What does a true imitator of God look like?
If we turn back to Ephesians chapter 5 we can get some more insight.
Verse two tells us: Read
Basically we need to love! The word used for love here is Agape. This is the highest form of love that God has for all of His children. It is Agape Love that drove Jesus to the cross to die for us, He loved us so much that He could not be without us and He took our place in death.
Paul talks about Agape love in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.
To summarize what Paul is telling us, we can speak eloquently to men and inspire them, be gifted by the Holy Spirit with tongues or prophecy or knowledge, have faith great enough to move mountains, we could sell everything we have and give it to the poor, or even sacrifice oneself for others, it is worth absolutely nothing without love.
All these things are good things, but without love they mean nothing. As Christians wanting to Imitate God we need to start with Love. Not just any love, but sacrificial love. Now for some Christians in the world that will mean actually putting their lives in harm’s way to love fellow believers, but what about for us here in Michigan.
What would sacrificial Agape love look like here at New Life Chapel?
Some examples are contributing money to the church, helping to care for the building, helping to lead some of the various ministries, reaching out to the lost, and more….basically it would be giving of your time and money to help New Life be what God has called it to be.
If you look at verse 2 again Christ Gave of himself, we need to imitate him and give of our selves sacrificially.
Moving on to verse 3. READ
Now I like the NIV translation for this verse, it says ‘From Notes’
‘But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people’ NIV
While this verse mentions a couple specifics it is really pointing to one attitude or behavior that is required to be an imitator of God.
Colossians 3:1-2 tell us READ
As Christ Imitators we need to look to the things of heaven, we need to make our desires match what God’s desires are. We need to desire the salvation of everyone we meet and work towards that. To follow God’s desires we need to do what He has gifted us to do. After all He gifted us to do what He desired us to do.
Verse 4 says: READ
Paul is not telling us we cannot have a sense of humor. God loves to hear joy in our voices and our laughter. There are a couple of verses in the Bible that I am pretty sure Jesus was telling a joke. The point here is, to be an imitator of God we need to think before we speak and remember to give thanks. We need to avoid things such as crude remarks, boasting, and name calling. While these alone may be minor they can lead us down a slippery slope and before we know it we might be acting on these comments. Lack of wisdom on what we say can lead to a lack of wisdom towards what we do. We also need to remember what scripture says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (READ).
Giving thanks is not something that should only be done at dinner time, it is something that we need to do all of the time. I challenge each of us to remember to say thank you to God several times a day. If we can remember to say thank you, we will remember why we are thankful!
Moving on to Verse 5 READ
Here Paul is reminding us that being immoral, wanting what others have, and putting things between us and God will keep us out of heaven. This is a message that is repeated several places in the New Testament. Choosing to live in sin will keep us from receiving the salvation offered to us by Jesus and His sacrificial death. This is obviously something we want to avoid. Many of us have struggled with some form of idol at one time of another. Idols such as money, cars, houses, work, anything that is interfering with our time with God.
Exodus 20:4 READ – This is one of the ten commandments and it tells us not to make Idols.
So to be an imitator of God we need to remember to keep our focus on God on not on other things, not on idols. We want that gift that Jesus has offered us, so we need to keep our focus on Him.
Now as we move on to verse 6 (READ)
What we are being told here is to watch out for the foolish words of non-believers.
Colossians 2:8 says (READ)
We need to protect ourselves from those who wish to mislead us, those we are teaching something other than the truth. For example there are people out there who teach various self help philosophies, that to not coincide with the Gospel. As believers, as Imitators of Christ we need to use Wisdom and stay away from those teachings. They will just lead us down the wrong path. Verse 6 also tells us that the wrath of God is on them. So once again as imitators of God we need to use Wisdom to stay focused on God and His will, and avoid His wrath.
Finally verse 7-8 tells us (READ)
What Paul is really saying here is that we do not want to slip into our old ways. We do not want to behave like we did before we were cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We are new creations and we are imitators of Christ and do not want to be lumped in with the ‘sons of disobedience’. We do not want God’s judgment to fall on us, as his children we want his blessing.
In summary:
Paul is calling us not to be some cheap imitation, like a cheap cigar, but to be imitators of God. To be someone who devotes time to learn the characteristics of the person they are trying to copy.
What does that look like?
1. We need to show Sacrificial Love to those around us, love love love, Do all things in love.
2. We align our desires to the things God desires, carry out the Great Commission
3. We think before we speak, our words can tear down or build up, choose carefully
4. Make a conscious effort to be thankful for what God has blessed us with, do this many times every day
5. Eliminate idols and keep our focus on God, Don’t let anything interfere with your time with God
6. Use Wisdom to shield ourselves from the foolishness of the world, compare everything against the Bible, It is the Truth.
Remember God is calling us not to be cheap imitations but Authentic Representations of the Son of God.
Lets Pray!
