Imitate me?

"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." 1 Cor 11:1

Even as I write these words I cringe. This verse has stuck with me for a long time and every time I read it and some times when it "pops" into my mind, I want to run and hide. But today, instead of running, I want to reflect on what Paul is asking of us with this verse.

First, as always, Christ must be central. Whatever Paul is calling the Corinthians to be and to do, whatever he is calling us to be and to do, it must be centered on, focused on, reliant upon and give glory to Christ. Nothing else is ultimately worthy of imitation.

Second, there must be something, some component of who Christ was (and is) , some aspect of our Savior that is imitatable.  I will not take the time right now, but it might be a healthy spiritual exercise for each of us to reflect on what aspects of Christ we can in fact imitate.  I would submit that there are more than we care to admit.

Third and, in my opinion, the hardest, we not only need to actually begin to try to imitate Christ in the ways we are able to imitate Him (i.e. not sin baring for me, but I certainly can pray more), but we need to consciously lay our lives out to others as something worthy of imitation. If we read this verse carefully, Paul is not just saying "Imitate Christ" but he's saying "Imitate Christ as you see Him in me". To fully embrace what Paul is saying, we must imitate Christ, not just because he's worthy of imitation and such imitation is really worship, but also because we are part of progression of imitators.

I have no doubt this verse is daunting. It certainly is to me.  It is hard enough to strive to imitate Christ, but to publicly throw my life out there a call people to imitate me, as I imitate Christ, is very risky.  One can appear arrogant, one can be open to charges of immaturity and hypocrisy. It might just be easier to simply let others passively view our lives and possibly catch the one Christ-like thing we did and imitate that. Less risk? Absolutely.  But is God glorified in that? Is Christ-exalted in that? Is the Spirit indispensably needed in that? Is the gospel held forth in that? My resounding answer is No!

So my prayer today in the name of Christ through the power of his shed blood, by the working of the Holy Spirit in each our lives for the glory and renown of God our Father, that we may actively imitate Christ and that we may actively call others to imitate our lives, as we imitate Christ.

To God Alone be the Glory.