Paul: Be Imitators of Me

A fascinating statement from Paul in 1 Cor 11.1, with many implications.

1. He implies that he has the authority to tell the Corinthians to imitate him. In other places he directly states that he has such authority because he is an apostle, on par with Christ's other apostles.

2. He implies that he is imitatable. By that I mean that he implies that it is possible for other believers to imitate his life and character. He was not a "super-saint," out of the reach of the normal Christian.

3. He directly states that his life and character imitate Christ's life and character and that such life and character is in the realm of possibility for his readers.

4. He implies that we ought to have a goal in terms of the Christian life and that goal ought to be to imitate Christ, with Paul as an example of how that is done.

A lot of power and truth packed into a few words.

Now to actually doing it...

Imitators of God

Paul sets a high standard for us in Ephesians 5.1. We are to be imitators of God. From Eph 4.32, we understand that he means that we are to imitate God's kindness and forgiveness, as demonstrated in his forgiveness of us in Christ. Who cannot find it in his heart to forgive when he understands that God has forgiven us for our sin and rebellion? It is easy to imitate our Father when we fully understand how much that he loves us.

As Chrysostom wrote: Not all children imitate their father, but those who know themselves to be beloved act like “beloved children".