IMITATE JESUS
--Ephesians 5:1-5
As a child and youth I learned that anything which was an imitation was cheap and not as good in quality as the original. It was not the best product for your money. The first King James Bible that my parents gave me was genuine Moroccan leather, the very best quality in the entire world. I still have it in my library after all these years. I had other Bibles that were imitation leather, not “the real McCoy.” They soon became tattered, torn, beat up, and no longer are around.
We often think that the words imitation, an imitator, or imitate convey the idea that you simply copy the original and that the end result in not of the same superior quality as the master. Paintings of all the great artists are continually imitated, copied. You know they are phony, fake, and worthless in comparison. Yet our text this morning implores us: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
The verb imitate and the noun imitator only appear a total of eleven times in the entire New Testament. This Greek family of words is the root from which we get our English equivalents mime and mimic. An actor that is proficient in mime entertains us by using only gestures and facial expressions, never speaking a word. Often that results in pleasure and joy.
However, one who mimics often ridicules others, and that brings negative responses. In the beginning the original Greek words portrayed the negative meaning. They “suggested an awkward attempt to ape someone else’s behavior.” [--Lawrence O. Richards, Expository Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publications, 1985), 352.]
Meanings of words often change in any language with the passing of time. By the time these words meaning “to imitate” or to be an imitator were used in the New Testament they only communicated a most powerful and positive message. They exhort us to follow the pattern of the most holy and godly role models we find in Scripture in living our own lives as Christian disciples. When the New Testament calls us to imitate the saints of Scripture, it is imploring us to follow them as a pattern for our own lives.
Who are the heroes and heroines you have made the patterns for your own life? Who is the role model or who are the role models for your live as a disciple of Jesus Christ? Paul upholds Jesus as our ultimate Role Model to follow in our Christian discipleship, but at the same time he can honestly lift up himself as a Christian role model as well. He exhorts the Church at Thessalonica in I Thessalonians 1:6-7: “You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” The Thessalonian Christians followed Jesus and Paul as their role models in Christian living and thus became role models themselves for all other Christians in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia to immolate and follow.
Paul could call on Christians in all the Churches to follow him as their role model because he set a good, positive, Christlike example, as he honestly testifies in I Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” The word follow and the word imitate are the same word in the original Greek. We can just as equally well translate this verse: “Imitate my example, as I imitate the example of Christ.” Jesus was Paul’s “All in all,” for he could affirm in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” As the praise and worship, scriptural chorus renders Paul’s testimony:
It’s no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.
He lives, He lives, Jesus is alive in me,
It’s no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me.
[SCRIPTURE IN SONG: SONGS OF PRAISE (Mission, Kansas, 1978), 8.]
Paul was a role model for other Christians to follow because Jesus so clearly lived in him.
Jesus is our supreme Role Model for our lives as Christian disciples. Recall our text once more: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” In imitating Jesus we “live a life of love, just as He loved us and gave himself up for us.” Such love is His agape love. It is always unconditional and self-sacrificing. It never discriminates against anyone and sets no conditions to receive it.
Jesus teaches us how to love agape style in Matthew 5:44-45, “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” When I love with the agape love of Jesus I love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me. Today my enemies include any terrorists in our world who would destroy us as a nation and our way of life.
We must follow Jesus, our Role Model, Who on the cross prayed for His enemies, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” [--Luke 23:34]. Stephen also becomes a role model for us when he prayed for those who were stoning him, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” [--Acts 7:60] When we love this way, Jesus is truly becomes our role model; we really imitate him; we authentically “live a life of love, just as He loved us and gave Himself up for us.” Is this how you live your life as His disciple?
In imitating Christ other characteristics we see in Jesus alongside love must be immolated as well. One chapter before our text Paul commands us in Ephesians 4:2, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” When we follow Jesus as our Role Model we are kind, compassionate, and forgiving to one another.
Our text also calls for radical changes in our lifestyle as we imitate Jesus. Did you catch them? As Christian role models there must be no hint in our lives of sexual immorality, of any kind of impurity, or of greed. In our language there is no place for obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking. Paul makes the point that “all these are improper for God’s holy people and out of place and must be replaced by the spirit of thanksgiving.” In keeping with such guidelines, how are we doing as Christian role models?
We are not only to imitate Jesus as our role model. We must become role models for others. In finalizing this message the Holy Spirit woke me up at 3:30 a. m. on Saturday morning and led me to two passages of Scripture. In I Timothy 4:12b Paul charges Timothy: “. . . set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” Then in Titus 2:6-7 he compels Titus, “Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good.”
Role models set an example for others. You can not escape the fact that others are watching our lives and following our example:
DADDY’S FOOTPRINTS
"Walk a little slower Daddy", said a child so small.
"I’m following in your footsteps and I don’t want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast.
Sometimes they’re hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.
Someday when I’m all grown up,
You’re what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child
Who’ll want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you."
[Author unknown: Source= http://www.topbabypages.com/ezinearticles/daddysfootprints.html]
As role models for other Christian disciples-- including but not limited to our children, youth, and newborn Christians-- we set an example in living a life that is loving, faithful to Jesus, and self-controlled. The rule of thumb that ties it all together is that we “set them an example by doing what is good.”
Edgar A. Guest was born in Birmingham, England, became a United States citizen in 1902, and eventually received the title “Poet Laureate of Michigan.” His poem “Sermons We See,” drives home the urgency of being a good, Christlike role model for others to follow:
I’d rather see a sermon
than hear one any day;
I’d rather one should walk with me
than merely tell the way.
The eye’s a better pupil
and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing,
but example’s always clear;
And the best of all the preachers
are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action
is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it
if you’ll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action,
but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lecture you deliver
may be very wise and true,
But I’d rather get my lessons
by observing what you do;
For I might misunderstand you
and the high advice you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding
how you act and how you live.
When I see a deed of kindness,
I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles
and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him,
then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful
as I know that friend to be.
And all travelers can witness
that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them,
but the one who shows the way.
One good man teaches many,
men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindness noticed
is worth forty that are told.
Who stands with men of honor
learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language
which to every one is clear.
Though an able speaker charms me
with his eloquence, I say,
I’d rather see a sermon
than to hear one, any day.
You and I can only imitate Jesus as the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to love our enemies; pray for those who despise and persecute us; be kind, compassionate, forgiving; and exhibit self-control. As He leads us, may we be that sermon others will see and come to follow Jesus as His disciples too.
Imitate Jesus! He is our Role Model! What kind of role models are we on behalf of Jesus before all who closely are watching us everyday?
