“I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV).
I’ve had the opportunity of growing up in two different church cultures. The first is the culture that permeated in the 1950's (and has remained in some churches or some communities). In this culture, people dress their best for church, wash their cars before coming, remember to bring their Bibles, attend Sunday School before services, and hide their sins. If they smoked, it was far away from church property. If they had affairs, those affairs were carefully secreted away. If they cheated or lied or stole, those actions were carefully covered up.
The second is the culture that began in the 1960's and has continued in many churches and communities. In this culture, people have taken the understanding that “God accepts us as we are.” People dress casually for church (like they might going to a movie or the beach). They may or may not carry their Bibles to church. If they have habitual sins, they don’t worry about hiding them, but can be seen smoking in the church parking lots, going to the grocery stores to liquor after the service, bringing their live-in girlfriends or boyfriends to church with them.
Of course, these descriptions are characterizations that don’t describe all believers, but they describe many church attenders. I believe that both cultures are both right and wrong in their approaches. Often, people take the emphasis from the “wrong” part of the approach, rather than understanding the truth of scripture. There are others, of course, who God places in our lives that become the “Pauls” for us; they become those that we can imitate, to whom we can go for support and advice.
Yesterday, as Ken and I were driving home, I told him that I wished that Uncle Paul and Aunt Doris (two wonderful saints who went home a number of years ago) were still here with us. We are facing a monumental decision and I would love to have simply been able to talk it over with them, to get their advice. I began to think of my wonderful Aunt Doris, my mom, and my Aunt Audrey—three women who have greatly influenced my life. They were my best friends, at different times in my life, and I miss having their lives to watch and imitate. Immediately, God brought Paul’s words to mind: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” I said to Ken, “I wonder if Aunt Doris, knowing that so many of us younger women were watching her, was influenced by this scripture? Did this scripture encourage her, at times, to be better than she thought she could be because she knew we were watching her?”
If you knew that people were watching your life, were forming their own Christian walk by yours, were learning what decisions to make based on your decisions, would you live differently?
Recently Ken and I have been going through a huge issue in our lives. (It’s not over yet.) As a result we have become more “visible” in people’s lives. Not only are people around us more aware of the fact that we are simply there, but they are watching our reactions to what is happening. I have become aware that people are looking to see how I will respond, perhaps even thinking that they will imitate me in a similar situation.
Am I imitate-able? Could I say to someone, “Imitate my actions because I’m imitating Christ”?
I believe that when we think (or know) that others are watching us, we are challenged to become better, to become more Christ-like, to spiritually and morally rise higher. At least, that’s what we should be doing.
I believe that, as a Church, we have become very comfortable in the casual atmosphere that exists now in many churches. Our clothes reflect our actions; our actions reflect our current morals and beliefs. We are convinced that God will accept us as we are (He does!), but we have forgotten that after that, He has challenged us to die to ourselves and to allow His Holy Spirit to live in us. “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:6, 11 NRSV). After we have come to Christ, we should refuse to give Him simply “whatever” and strive to give Him the best that we have . . . and more! To allow Him to make us better than we ever think we could be. And that comes through self-control (a fruit of the Spirit), through love, through kindness to others, through faith in His plan and purpose, through trust in what we cannot see, through reaching out . . . and through become the kind of people that others can imitate. My prayer today is that my actions will become those that others can imitate and, in doing so, become more obedient to Christ and His will for their lives.
© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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