The Imitator

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

THE IMITATOR

1 Thess 1:4-10

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia — your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

NIV

Having considered that we are loved by God and the gospel coming to us with power and with the Holy Spirit, we now need to deal with this idea of being an imitator of the Lord, even in spite of anything we might suffer. Paul tells them because they were imitating Christ they became a model to all the believers in the area around them. We are aware that our relationship with the Lord is extremely personal, however, we do have an influence on people around us, whether we want to or not. People are watching us, both people of faith and people of the world. How we conduct ourselves among our place of worship, or among our fellow believers' matters. This does not mean we should put up a false front, a façade, so to try to make a good impression. This would also apply to how we conduct ourselves in the secular world we have to live and most likely work in. In other words, we need to be real instead of being fake. However, in being real, we still should be this model for those who we are around, and that model should be the same as Christ modeled for us. We should also be living in such a manner, such as modeling Christ, that our faith is evident to all those around us. It comes down to our reputation and of what sort that is. Surely if we have a negative reputation, others will certainly gossip about us, and it would not do well for the kingdom of God. However, if they talk about us with positive remarks, seeing our faith being lived out in how we worship, work and even play, then we are having a good influence for the kingdom of God. It still boils down to thinking to ourselves as we are faced with all the numerous situations in life, what would Jesus say, or do. How would Jesus deal with this situation? How can we be more like Christ? Of course, this means we have to always be in the word, examining how Jesus reacted and how he dealt with people. It would seem we could wrap it all up in the word, love. Jesus has told us the two greatest commands, which he demonstrated, are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we just did that, we would be imitators of Christ. Loving the Lord does not seem to be too difficult, at least we think so, but loving our neighbor is where it becomes more difficult, especially those that are not so lovable. We think, the main issue that stems from is that we usually look at the outside of people, and not at their heart, as God does. We form opinions of people based on their appearance rather than on their hearts. Then again, many people might be putting up a front and so we base our love for them on that appearance rather than on their spirit. What we need to focus on is how we are, and that we are imitators of Christ. Then would be able to love all people no matter how they look or the condition of their heart. So let us be the imitator.