1 Cor 4:15-16
Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
Heb 6:12
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
Heb 13:7
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
3 John 11
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
1 Peter 2:20-21
If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
We are imitators by nature. It’s how we’re wired. Our tendency is to look and act and speak like everyone around us. This is especially true of younger people. Remember when everyone started embellishing their sentences with the word “like.” “It’s like, you know. I like did this and he like did that…” It like drove me crazy.
People who want to sell things know that we are imitators and use that knowledge to make themselves rich. If you want to sell a certain kind of shoe all you have to do is to get a sports star to wear them, and all of a sudden everyone is Michael Jordan.
Back in the day when I was learning to play the fiddle I would go once a week to see Ruel Bains. Ruel was a great fiddle player, but his approach to teaching was very simplistic. He would play a tune and then say, “Now you do it.” It was the most awkward thing in the world at first, but eventually, by dent of imitation, I could produce sounds roughly similar to his. By doing so I learned how the fiddle worked, how to use the bow, etc. (And no, I’m not going to play at church).
Being imitators is not good or bad in itself, it’s just how we’re wired. Even non-conformists look and act like other non-conformists. It’s how we learn.
That is why the discipline of imitation is so important. We can’t help but imitate, but we can decide who and what we’re going to imitate. If you want a good marriage, find someone with a good marriage and do what they do—awkward at first, but eventually you get the hang of it. The same goes for following Jesus in general—if you want to be a fruitful and effective follower of Jesus, find someone who is good at it and do what they do.
Brian
