A Life Worth Imitating Senior Pastor Grace Bible Church
Pretty much everyone born before 2000 remembers the Gatorade commercials with Michael Jordan with the tag, “I wanna be like Mike.” The consisted of scenes of Jordan basketball, and then Jordan drinking Gatorade. The message was, “If you want to be like Mike, just drink gatorade.” This Thessalonian believers were imitating their spiritual fathers and into the imitation marketing strategy hook, line, and sinker. I and tribulations. Their spiritual mentors had been forcefully led out of the city. Presumably they themselves were facing of golf balls will make me hit it like Tiger, or this brand of tempting for them to give up and take the easy path. But Paul imitate others is a powerful thing. becoming an example to all the believers in the surrounding The notion of imitation is also a robustly Biblical one. The area. As you think about your own life, is your life marked question becomes, then, “What are we imitating? How are we imitating? Why are we imitating? And what do we expect persecution, or trials? as a result of our imitation?” We see repeated exhortations Second, we see that they were Gospel-spreading. Having (1 Cor 4:16), other members of the community of faith (Phil received the good news of what Jesus has done to reconcile 3:7), to imitate what is good (3 John 11), as well as to imitate God and Jesus Christ (Eph 5:1). life they made it known to others. The same must be true for This idea of imitation has been on my mind recently as I’ve you and me. As we consider the Gospel and the change that Jesus makes in our lives, we must be willing to verbally share 10. As I read and pondered this passage, I asked questions that good news and what that means for sinners and sufferers like, “What was it about their lives that made them worthy of all around us, and we must also see an active faith in our lives, imitation? What was Paul commending in their lives? And how where those who see our lives see evidence of the change that do we learn from those things so that we, too, could live a life the Gospel has made. Our decision-making, our parenting, worth imitating?” and much more are indispensable aspects of our evangelism. We must be willing to speak the Gospel with our lips as well made their lives worthy of imitation, and four things that I as demonstrate the power of the Gospel in our changed lives persevering, Gospel-spreading, God-serving, and Christ- by the power of the Spirit. awaiting.
42 GML - October 2020
