Be Imitators of Christ

Our pastor's sermon series on 1 Corinthians is continuing. Yesterday he mentioned Paul's exhortation to imitate his example just as he imitates Christ's example. (1 Cor 11:1)* That part of the sermon took me back to a Bible study thirty years ago when this same topic came up. During the discussion, a women said that if we are to imitate Christ, we needed to study and observe him just as an actor studies for a role he will play. The actor wants to understand how his character moves, speaks, and treats people. How does he show love and compassion? What makes him angry and how does he show anger? The more the actor knows and understands, the better he can imitate.

The same is true for us as Christians. If we truly aim to imitate Christ, we need to know and understand him. We need to study and learn everything we can so that we are able to pour our heart and soul into acting like him.

Do you remember Rain Man with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman? As I watched that movie years ago, I was quite surprised when I realized that I had watched the entire thing without being aware that Dustin Hoffman was even in it. I was aware only of Raymond Babbitt, the autistic savant Hoffman portrayed. As I later learned, Hoffman spent a great deal of time observing autistic savants go about their daily routines. He  studied their speech patterns and voice inflections, body language, thought processes and demeanor. He then practiced until he could imitate them perfectly. As of result of his hard work, most viewers of the film saw only the character being portrayed and not the actor playing the role.

I believe that is truly what it means to become like Christ, to be imitators of Christ. We are to live our lives in such a way that those around us see only Jesus in our words, deeds, and actions, not our own sinful human nature that demeans, gossips, robs, cheats, judges, and the list goes on. Thankfully I have a lifetime to study and rehearse, but the study and rehearsal are done on stage where I can be seen by everyone. All I can do is improve every day. There are times I blow it so badly that I wish I had an understudy, but I don't.

I have so much to learn.

Jan

*Many translations, including KJV, use the word follow instead of imitate. The Greek word used in this passage is mimetes which means to imitate. To me, follow is too weak a translation for the original Greek word. I guess it is all in ones interpretation of follow.