PASTOR’S CORNER: Imitate me

The Apostle Paul said, “Be followers of me, as I am also of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Friends, we don’t need to go too far in our Christian walk without taking spiritual inventory. We need to come back here often, and ask ourselves the most important question of questions: Can we point to ourselves as a good Christian for Jesus Christ to the extent that we can ask our children, a young convert, a relative, a sinner or somebody around us to “imitate me” and “do what I do?” Before we tell somebody to imitate us, we first need to look at some things.

Today, we need to search our hearts, because when we say to anybody imitate me or follow me, we need to look at what we are doing and how we are living. We are saying to others, do what I do, behave just like me and have the same attitude that I have. When we say do what I do, the question is, do we want them to talk like we talk, use the language that we use, act the way we act, behave the way we behave, tell the truth like we do or keep their word like we do? Do we want them to have the same temperament that we have and not seek revenge like I do or forgive like I forgive?

Are we a full-time Christian at home, on our job, in our community, uptown, in the mall, in the school system and when we are not seen by people at the church? Am I the same way all the time?

Imitate me means follow me as your example, an example in how to be a Christian. Can the drug user say that to their children? Do drugs like I do. Will the father who does not provide say to those children, “Do like I do?” To the person who is one way at church and another way totally at home, will you say to your family, be a hypocrite just like me?

Community, there was a time when I could not say this because before I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, before my sons were born, I could not, would not say to them “Imitate me!”… “do what I have done.” Some of you wouldn’t either because what we were was not good. I would have been too ashamed to say this to them. I could not hold my head up, because I was not the man before Jesus Christ that I became after Jesus Christ. In that I can only echo the words of the apostle Paul that I am only what I am by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Community, if the truth be told this morning, how many of us can truly say today to all of the people around us, including our children, our spouse, siblings, relatives, friends, co-workers and other Christians, imitate me, do like I do as a Christian, walk like I walk, talk like I talk, act like I act, behave like I do? Would we want them to follow after us? Or are there some gray areas in our lives? It says a lot if we can and it says a lot if we can’t! All fathers and mothers need to ask themselves this question “Do I want my children to imitate me?

Notice Paul did not just say follow me or follow me blindly… but he said follow me as I follow Christ. Christ is my example and as long as I follow him, then I will be your example. Any leader who professes to be a Christian leader ought to be able to say as Paul said because of the life Paul lived. He could say that to the Corinthian church. Community, so many Christians stumble, are led astray, because they follow leaders who are not following Christ.

That’s how people get caught up in cults: they follow leaders whose lives are not in gospel order. Jesus said, “A tree is known by the fruit that it bears” (Luke 6:43-45). He also said, “A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit; and a good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit” (Matthew 7:18). In other words, if a leader has intentionally removed themselves from under the word of God, no Christian should follow them, because they can’t lead where they are not going!

Good leaders know the way, shows the way and goes the way!

Community, no leader is perfect, every leader has flaws. Paul wasn’t perfect, but because he had been changed from the inside out, he had a desire to follow after Christ, to model after him to the best of his ability. Therefore, he could say to these Christians, be followers of me, as I follow Christ.

We all ought to live in such a way that tells somebody around us, look at me, watch me, follow my example, and imitate me! Imitate how I treat my husband, my wife, how I provide for my children and make time for my children. Imitate me in my commitment to my church, to the office that I hold, my behavior as a professed Christian, the love that I show, my patience, my attitude and then imitate me in my relationship with God!

Paul wanted this church to get that the one gift that they all should have sought, was the gift of love. No wonder he devotes an entire chapter (chapter 13) to the subject of love. May we all live so, that we can say “Be a follower of me as I follow Christ.”