Yesterday was tough. We had to look a huge aspect of our culture— consumerism—in the eye and see how it affects our churches and us. It plays out in our attitude toward leaders, Sunday worship services, and each other.
Paul’s been pushing against the Corinthians’ consumeristic mindset. He’s adamant that the Corinthians shouldn’t use Christian leaders as a leg up or a spiritual crutch.
But it begs the question, what should we expect from the Christian celebrities and leaders in our lives? What should our attitude be towards them?
Take a minute to read through 1 Corinthians 4:14–17.
14I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. 15For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. 16So I urge you to imitate me. 17That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.
What does Paul tell the Corinthians to do in verse 16?
Why would Paul tell them to imitate him?
It sounds like an arrogant statement when Paul said to imitate him. But Paul’s getting at the same big idea we’ve been tackling so far in 1 Corinthians—choosing to risk our own interests and live the Spirit-led life.
Paul has already been living out the “foolish” life he’s calling the Corinthians to imitate. He’s given several examples throughout the first four chapters. In 1 Corinthians 4:8-13, he details how difficult it’s been.
8You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you. 9Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and angels alike. 10Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. 11Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. 12We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. 13We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment.
He’s not saying, “Imitate me because I’m awesome.” He’s saying, “Follow my lead as I choose this crazy, upside-down life Jesus called us to.” He desperately wants the Corinthians to give up their selfish act and embrace everything he’s taught them about Jesus.
So here’s what we can take away from Paul’s words: We should learn from other Christians. We don’t have to live exactly as they do. But we can apply the principles we learn from them to our lives. We do need to be careful to choose the right people— those who are actually choosing to live selflessly.
Who are some of the influential Christians in your life?
What have they done to show you how to put other people before yourself?
We also need the right attitude. Other Christians aren’t God. They aren’t the ones causing us to grow. And they aren’t to be used as weapons against other Christians.
Pick one of the people you listed in the previous question and take a few minutes to evaluate your attitude towards him or her. Have you idolized that person? If he or she were to leave your life today, how would it affect you?
As we imitate other Christians who are obedient to Jesus, the hope is that we’d also become role models for fellow believers.
As we close today, take some time to think about your life. Would you say you live in a way that’s worth imitating What if the people in your life—your friends, coworkers, or kids—acted just like you? Would they be more like Jesus?
Reflect upon how would people mimic Christ in your life. Write out a prayer to God about your answer. Ask him to help you live a life worth imitating.
Text your response to the above prompting questions to your group and/or share it as a comment below
Living a life devoted to God worth imitating. I’ve been praying a lot lately about just continuing to learn to be more like Jesus which is to learn of the fruit of the spirit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” Galatians 5:22. Much of these characteristics of Jesus which we are all called to be like are used in our relationships. First our relationship with God then relationship with our brothers and sisters. That’s what the foundation of the Ten Commandments consist of. 1-4 addressing our relationship to God our creator then 5-10 is our relationship with others. Now something that sunk in even deeper is when Jenney asked me, “do you know why I save?” I told her so she can be a steward of her money and like take care of God’s money that he gave her correctly. She answers, “no, it’s so she can have enough money to help other people” then furthermore Dr. Hai showed me that that simply is just an eternal investment. Which really humbled me even more giving me a new perspective on money. I pray that God can continue to allow his word and his teachings to pierce through my heart, overflowing through my flesh so that I may live it out daily so that God can shine through me to the lost and those rejecting God like my sister.
I’m not sure if I live a life worth imitating but I hope that I would; since we are supposed to be imitating Christ and if we are doing that then by a transitive property, if someone were to imitate my life they would be imitating Christ. Of course as we have come to see in the example of the Corinthians as well as ourselves, living a life like Christ can be difficult because of the various issues that we all possess. I pray that I can live a life that Christ would want me to live and in the end I hope He will say “well done, good and faithful servant”. Ultimately, I continue to pray and ask God to search my heart and to show me anything that is offensive so that He can root it out of my life…I don’t think I would ever feel comfortable telling anyone to imitate me, especially when we have Christ as the perfect model of how to live life.