Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1, NKJV)
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit expect Christians to follow the examples set by the apostles. By inspiration, Paul the apostle commands imitation of him as he imitated Christ. Obviously, our ultimate model is Christ Jesus. The apostles were His faithful witnesses to the world. It is by their preaching that we know of Christ, come to trust in Christ, are called to follow Christ, and are saved in Christ. It naturally follows that once saved by the apostolic gospel, we then follow the pattern they set to continue to be faithful to the Master (Matt. 28:19-20). To imitate means to mimic, to be a follower of another. In today’s verse, Paul is repeating an earlier exhortation (1 Cor. 4:16). Who is your role model? Jesus, you say? Then, you will be following the examples of His apostles, because they are our “pattern” (Phil. 3:17). Let us imitate the apostles of Christ to have peace and fulfillment in life and throughout eternity. “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil. 4:9).
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