Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
(1 Corinthians 4:16-18, NASB)
Paul exhorted the Christians in Corinth to imitate him. He didn’t do this because he thought he was somehow better than they were. He did it because he knew he was more mature in his faith, and he knew they could learn from him.
Each of us has someone (or perhaps more than one someone) who is farther along his faith journey than we are. We can learn from his example. We can see how he handles adversity with grace. We can watch how he strives to be more like Christ. My maternal grandfather was such a person. I would consider myself blessed indeed if I knew I was imitating his faith.
If you don’t have someone like this, find someone. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone you can see and touch. You can study Paul’s life. Read each of his epistles very carefully and learn from him. Two mentors of mine are Joni Eareckson Tada and Corrie Ten Boom. I never met either of these women, but their stories have inspired me, encouraged me, and convicted me through the years.
Imitating godly people helps us to become more the people God created us to be. And it does something more: We often become mentors for others. As we grow in faith, God will bring younger (and I don’t just mean chronologically) believers into our lives. They then look to us as examples of more mature faith.
It’s a wonderful circle of learning and being influenced, and then teaching and influencing. And God’s in the middle of it all!
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