1 Corinthians 11:1

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Paul writes these words to the Corinthians. He has just explained some of how he chooses to interact with the Lost. Giving up many of his own liberties, at times, to better meet those people where they are. And so he tells the Corinthian church to imitate him, as he imitates Christ.

This verse is often used in the more direct sense that we should imitate our leader’s as they attempt to imitate Christ. This is an apt application of the scripture. But it occurred to me this morning as I was reading that we could also probably apply this in a broader sense as well.

As believers we all are imitators of Christ. We all have his Word and his Gospel. While the early church needed leaders to be a kind of ‘walking scripture’ to remind them of the Truth (they didn’t have very may written copies yet, and no one had a copy all to themselves which they could study daily), we now have the written transcripts and almost all of us have one all to ourselves. Those leading figures in our community remain important, but perhaps not always in the exact same way.

Because of this, we are all in a position to learn from each other and pour into one another. In some ways, we are all to each other, as Paul was to the Corinthians. We are all imitators of Christ to each other.

It stands to reason, with some limit, that we ought to not only look to our assigned leaders for our example, but also each other as to how to imitate Christ. To assess what is honorable in each other and imitate that.

Perhaps I have a great will and ability to read and study God’s word, while you have a great will and ability to seek God in prayer. These are both honorable things, and looking to each other, we should see what is good and attempt to emulate that as well.

I suspect this would help us to have a healthier view of following and serving God in our various ways, rather than idealizing church leadership and viewing that as the ‘pinnacle’ of following Christ.

Mark 5: 24:31

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’"

In this story, Jesus is traveling to heal a girl who was sick and would eventually die, then later be brought back to life by Jesus. In transit, Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd who is pressing up against him, attempting to hear what he might say or see what he might do.

In the midst of this crowd was a woman who was suffering from a constant discharge of blood. The physicians of the day only served to drain her finances and leave her health worse off than when she started. Discovering Jesus, she wanted to get close to him. If nothing else, only to touch the fringes of his clothing. She succeeded and was healed. But when this happened, Jesus took notice. Even in the midst of a huge crowd that was obviously pressing up against him at times, he noticed the woman who had been healed.

Do you suppose she was the only one in the crowd afflicted with something? Perhaps she was the only one who was written about. But it could also be that, though there were many other people touching him, she was healed, while their experience was irrelevant.

She, presumably unlike the others, went to touch his garment in faith that she would be healed, while the others perhaps just out of hype or personal curiosity.

For me, this reminds me that simply knowing about Christ, or being in close proximity to the truth (i.e., in church every Sunday) isn’t enough to bring significant change to our lives. We have to press up against him actually believing that something will happen.

This is hard to do. But  remembering is a good step in the right direction.

Psalm 81:11-13:

"But my people did not listen to my voice;
   Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
   to follow their own counsels.
Oh, that my people would listen to me,
   that Israel would walk in my ways!”

In this passage, Asaph illustrates an important principle which runs throughout all of scripture. And, it’s one I’ve written on before.

There are times when a believer succumbs to destructive habits in his or her life and rides them out for a time. The severity varies, but most of the time the root is the same. God, at times, gives a believer up to his or her own sinful inclinations as a means of discipline. Discipline is good. Something like a parent allowing a child to get burned so they learn that it hurts.

While at times indulging our flesh feels rewarding, the underlying fact is that it is destructive and bad for us. When a believer enters a time like this, it isn’t long before they realize that they are suffering and return stronger than before.

This is why, I believe, a consistently good relationship with God won’t always look like obvious sanctification. Rather, sanctification will sometimes actually include times of serious struggle or even repetitive failure. For the believer, I believe, this is part of the sanctifying process we have to go through.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we go out in search of ways to gratify our flesh. No, we continue to seek God and seek to be like him. But when, we face times like these, we should feel encouraged. God is patient, molding and teaching us to be more like him, employing even the unexpected things we do and experience in order to meet his intentions for us.

Psalm 80:19:

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
   Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

I love this.

While perhaps the context doesn’t translate directly, it reminds us that God’s grace, God’s grace in revealing himself to us in Jesus Christ on the cross, is where we find our salvation.

Seeing God, as he is, is the only way we see our need for him and so receive his total blessing.

That is beautiful.

The past couple weeks I’ve really been dwelling on the idea of remembering Jesus—remembering the Gospel. As I read today, this passage in the beginning of Psalm 77 stuck out to me.

You hold my eyelids open;
   I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I consider the days of old,
   the years long ago.
I said, "Let me remember my song in the night;
   let me meditate in my heart."
   Then my spirit made a diligent search:
”Will the Lord spurn forever,
   and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
   Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"
                         Selah

Then I said, "I will appeal to this,
   to the years of the right hand of the Most High."

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
   yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

Asaph describes his turmoil and mental anguish over his circumstances. Then shifts immediately. He says that he will remember God’s works and ‘wonders’ of old.

Every Christian can attest to God’s power to provide strength and comfort. Yet, we all quickly forget that he has done so for us in the past, when our present seems to fall apart. Like Asaph, we should make a careful point to remember what God has done for us in the past, in his Gospel in general and our lives in specific, to give us confidence for the future.

A scripture many of us are familiar with. It’s often used when talking about evangelism. 1 Corinthians 2:1-4:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Whenever I come across this scripture I’m baffled how something so clear can be so totally neglected in institutional church ministry at large.

Even though he was well educated and able to debate the world with the best of them, Paul resolved not to employ such methods. This was so that when the people believe, there would be no risk that their faith would rest on his power of persuasion, but on God’s power alone.

While parts of the church are beginning to move into a healthier mindset, there is still a huge, possibly even vast majority, of the church who is still spending loads of money and time and resources attempting to craft an appealing ministry that will draw in crowds. It’s like Tim Keller says:

“What you win people with, you will keep them with.”

Don’t get me wrong, there is value in meeting people where they are at and allowing ourselves to be culturally relevant. But that happens on a personal level, not a corporate one. When the church manufactures ‘relevance’ the world can tell and just adds one more drop in the bucket for why the institutional church shouldn’t be trusted.

Meditating on God’s word is an ancient command and tradition. Joshua 1:8:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Of course, not everyone during Joshua’s time, or even Christ’s time would have access to their own personal copies of the scripture. The idea was that they would know it and remember it. It would be a constant reminder to them.

Today, we have the same need and command to remember God’s word. And our memory hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, with the instant nature of the internet and entertainment, it’s probably gotten worse.

This is why, even though actually reading the bible every day is not exactly a biblical command, we should do it daily. With our plethora of resources, it’s likely the best way we can fulfill the commands to remember God’s word.

There’s just no good excuse not to.