Biblical Imitation

Paul wrote to Christian believers in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."  Like Jesus, Paul's exercise of liberty was love of God and others--and they would do well to follow in Christ's footsteps as Paul did.  It is said, "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery," but this is not what is meant by the imitation Paul spoke of:  flattery has nothing to do with it.  We follow Christ and imitate Him from a heart of love, admiration and worship.  Jesus no longer physically walked the earth when Paul wrote his epistles to the Corinthian church, and as Paul submitted to the life of Jesus lived out through him, following Paul's example by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit was the real thing.

In his book The Call, Os Guinness had valuable insights to share concerning the importance of imitation in the Christian walk:

"Paul's use of the word imitators is important.  Modeling--observing and copying--is vital to discipleship because of the biblical view of the way disciples must learn.  There is always more to knowing that human knowing will ever know.  So the deepest knowledge can never be put into words--or spelled out in sermons, books, lectures, and seminars.  It must be learned from the Master, under his authority, in experience.  When we read in the Gospels that Jesus chose twelve "to be with him," their being with him was not some extra privilege they enjoyed.  It was the heart and soul of their disciples and learning.

The theme of tutoring and imitation, which goes far deeper than current notions of "mentoring" is conspicuous in the teaching of the early church.  We grow through copying deeds, not just listening to words, through example as well as precept, through habit and not just insight and information.  Calling therefore creates an ethic of aspiration, not just of obligation...Clement of Alexandria wrote, "Our tutor Jesus Christ exemplifies the true life and trains the one who is in Christ....He gives commands and embodies the commands that we might be able to accomplish them."

Clement's last sentence is noteworthy.  Some Christians are suspicious of imitation because it sounds like a form of self-help spirituality.  Modeling seems to smack of a foolproof method of growth that is as mechanical as the instructions for assembling a model airplane.  But they misunderstand imitation.  For one thing, genuine "originality" is God's prerogative, not ours.  At our most "creative," we are only imitative.  For another, imitating a life is far from wooden.  Real lives touch us profoundly--they stir challenge, rebuke, shame, amuse, and inspire at levels of which we are hardly aware.  That is why biographies are the literature of calling; few things are less mechanical...

Importantly, imitating Christ is not a form of do-it-yourself change because it is part and parcel of responding to the call--a decisive divine word whose creative power is the deepest secret of the changes.  Think of Ezekiel's vision of the valley of the dry bones or the astounding miracle of Jesus calling the dead Lazarus out of the tomb.  Can anyone listen to that voice, see what it effects, and still say the hearers responded by themselves?  Do dry, brittle bones ever reassemble into a body on their own?  Can a corpse shake off death by itself?

No more do we change by ourselves as we imitate Christ.  The imitation of Christ that is integral to following Him means that, when we calls us, he enables us to do what he calls us to do." (Guinness, Os. The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. Thomas Nelson, 2003. page 81-82)

The imitation Paul called disciples of Christ to was not be more like Paul, but to be more like Jesus.  We can know this is God's will for Christians as we read in Hebrews 13:20-21:  "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹ equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (NIV)

The Magpie Lesson

"Understand, you senseless among the people; and you fools, when will you be wise? ⁹ He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? ¹⁰ He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge?"

Psalm 94:8-10

Everything man is capable of doing is a shadow of what God does perfectly without fail or limitation.  Our ability to see and hear clearly fades over time, but God who created and formed the ear can hear everything; He who gave sight to mankind, beasts and birds can see everything at once.  By extension, all the wonders and marvels of creation speak of God's wisdom, abilities and attributes.  From the greatest and mightiest beasts to microscopic organisms, creation declares the glory of God.

Spring in Sydney ushers in a flutter of bird activity, and the mornings are full of singing and squawking from the trees in our area.  Rainbow lorikeets, noisy miners and warbling of magpies announce the rise of the sun from their perches with gusto.  During a walk past a local school recently, I noticed numerous signs posted on the fence that warned of a swooping magpie--a behaviour that is quite sudden and unnerving as males protect their nearby nest with young.  I have observed people bloodied by magpies that tend to swoop from behind, careful to avoid eye contact.  After a while the warning signs ended, and I did not see or hear any evidence of the magpie patrol.

All the signage did not quite prepare me for a sharp call and a wing that brushed the side of my head.  There was that aggressive magpie the signs had warned me about!  He continued to make passes swooping me whether I looked at him over the next couple hundred meters--even after I crossed the street.  It was amazing how quickly when my back was turned the magpie swooped close and snapped his beak right next to my ear, gliding past to another tree.  I read this territorial behaviour of swooping is nearly always done by males to any perceived threat near their young.  The result of the swooping magpie means I will choose to walk in a different area for the next month.

This experience prompted me to consider:  the God who created the magpie to swoop and defend its young--won't He defend and protect His people as well?  If a magpie will guard its little ones by instinct, isn't God more observant to recognise and drive away threats because of His great love for us?  The magpie is an intelligent bird, believed to be able to recognise the faces of 100 different people:  God knows every one of His disciples by name and even the number of hairs on our heads!  Jesus said in John 10:14, "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own."  How blessed we are to know God as the sheep of His pasture, and even being swooped by a territorial bird can provide greater understanding of our awesome God, protector and Saviour.

Clean and Righteous

Have you ever given thought to the phrase, "Clean up your act?"  From various sources online, it means to behave in a better way.  It means obeying laws and improving your behaviour in a socially acceptable manner.  There is one critical issue I take with this concept from a biblical perspective.  While improved behaviour is likely to benefit an individual and those around them, it does not address the source of our sinfulness--our hearts and minds that are intimately known by God.  Even if you are successful in adjusting your behaviour, it is like tearing off the tops of weeds and leaving the root of sin alive to grow back thicker and stronger.

This brings up another point:  the Bible establishes plainly by the 10 Commandments and countless other passages that all human beings are fundamentally corrupt and sinful.  We are unable to change ourselves on the inside, even as a leopard cannot change its spots on its fur.  Animals can be trained to modify their behaviour, but they retain their original nature.  There are marks we make that are impossible to remove; there are stains that cannot be washed away.  In a similar way, we are incapable of changing ourselves permanently for the better.  Things have happened to us that have shaped our perspectives, and habits form so easily we can spend a lifetime working to shift them.  We can put forth much effort to shift our habits from one thing to another while we remain enslaved to some manner of addiction.

Is this what God desires, that people "clean up their act?"  Is God fond of actors, of hypocrites who appear to be living a clean life but are spiritually dead inside?  Absolutely not.  I have heard some people say they need to clean up their lives and then they will seek God, but this will be an exercise of futility when man cannot overcome or cleanse himself from sin.  Cleansing from sin is what only Jesus Christ can do!  He demonstrated His power over sin when He raised a paralytic to perfect health by speaking the word, and Jesus proved His power over the results of sin (death) when He rose from the dead.  Jesus does not call us to clean up our act and follow Him, but to believe in Him which makes us born again, new creations by the Gospel.  Then we are divinely enabled and helped to follow Him!  As it is written in Galatians 6:15:  "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation."  Removing a bit of skin will not change you into a new creation, but faith in Jesus does.

By the indwelling Holy Spirit, God begins to transform us from within and refines our outlook and behaviour because He is our source of purity.  No longer do we need to "act tough" but we can "be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).  By faith in Jesus we now have a choice if we will yield to our flesh or to Jesus Christ who is holy, righteous and pure.  Because Christians are alive unto God by faith in Jesus, Paul wrote in Romans 6:12-13:  "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."  Having been washed free from sin within, we are to present ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God.  In Christ we now have a choice and strength to refuse to submit to sin we never had ourselves before, and God help us to walk in wisdom and righteousness.

Gadding About?

In Jeremiah 2, God confronted His people for "gadding about" to change their ways.  In the 1828 Webster's Dictionary, he described this as "To walk about; to rove or ramble idly or without any fixed purpose."  The nation of Israel had become fickle, both in their worship and their foreign policy.  With trouble coming from nations from the north, they sought an alliance with Egypt (where they previously had been slaves and were forbidden by God to return) and took the road to Assyria (enemies who conquered the northern kingdom).  Having forsaken the LORD and served idols, they flitted here and there in a panic, looking for anyone or anything to deliver them.

In their moment of need they called on God to arise and deliver them, yet God was not beholden to His people who justified themselves.  The prophet described their gadding ways using an unflattering illustration in Jeremiah 2:23-24:  "How can you say, 'I am not polluted, I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley; know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways, ²⁴ a  wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs at the wind in her desire; in her time of mating, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they will find her."  God compared the penchant of His people for spiritual adultery to female camels or donkeys in heat which are aggressive to seek out a mate.  In God's eyes, their roving and rambling was with a definite purpose, seeking lovers other than God who alone loved them through idolatry.

God is quoted in Hebrews 10:38, "Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."  Those who trust God will take steps of faith by obedience to Him, but the LORD is not pleased in those who draw back.  Galatians 2:12 (NIV) contains an illustration from the life of Peter that illustrates fickleness and hypocrisy, shrinking from agreement with God:  "Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group."  Peter changed his ways depending whether Jews were around, and having departed from God the children of Israel roved from idols to God, from nation to nation looking for deliverance found in God alone.  I include this example to show this was not an Old Testament phenomenon, for it is possible for strong saints to draw back from living by faith and live in a manner which is displeasing to God.

It is by grace through faith in Jesus Christians are deemed righteous by God, and thus we are to live by faith in God.  We have been saved for God's sake, to please Him by choosing to trust and obey Him.  It is good for us to consider how we think and live:  are we those who look to Christ for leading and guidance, or do we "gad about" and flit from person or thing to seek help, sympathy or renewed confidence in ourselves?  Psalm 46:10-11 exhorts God's people:  "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! ¹¹ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah"  We can be still and at rest in the midst of trials and difficulties, for God is with us and remains our steadfast expectation of good.  When our flesh feels we must do something, living by faith in God means our confidence rests in Him to accomplish the work we could never do in His time and way.