Being an Imitator of Christ

Being locked out of something

There is a moment of panic when you arrive at your front door or your vehicle and can’t find your keys. Whether you look through your purse or your bag or on the ground, your heart rate increases. You recall that you have a spare key hidden specifically for this moment.

Of course, your key is hidden so others won’t steal it, giving them access to your home. You grab the key and insert it into the doorknob, only to find that the key won’t open the door. How is this possible?

You come to the realization that there is another way into your house. Maybe it is through a window on the first floor. Easy to access, bu will draw a lot of attention from the neighbors. What will they think of me crawling through my window? Will they know who it is? Will they call the police?

In 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10, the apostle Paul and his ministry team of Silas and Timothy encourage the Thessalonians to embrace the power of the Gospel and live as imitators of Christ. He assures them that their imitation of Christ has opened the door for believers around the region to the message of the Gospel, even amidst suffering and persecution. Their holy living were being imitated, and Paul challenges them to continue living holy lives.

In verse 4, Paul uses the phrase brothers and sisters to introduce the idea of how connected the body of believers at Thessalonica were. The church is a community of the beloved who were adopted into God’s family through Christ. Paul knew that the Thessalonians were chosen by God because that was the only explanation for the impact they had on the world them. Only lives rooted in the power of the gospel could create such impact and only God could supply that power.

Paul and his team knew the Thessalonians were chosen by God because they lived lives of faith, love, and hope. Paul uses this set of three, the same set from 1 Corinthians 13:13, but in a different order. Here, hope and love are flipped because the focus of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians emphasized hope in the context of the second coming of Christ. As a body, are we duplicating the hope of Thessalonians?

The lives of the Thessalonians were worthy to be duplicated, and that is exactly what happened! Paul informs them in verses 7-9 of the incredible impact of living holy lives. But, how was it possible that holy lives could have such an impact? It was because the Gospel that came to them was not merely words but words containing the power of the Holy Spirit who authored and inspired them.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians of the importance of imitation. Verse 6 says the Thessalonians imitated Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Paul, Silas, and Timothy welcomed the gospel in the midst of persecution, and so did the Thessalonians.

When you duplicate a key, you must take the original to ensure the copy will work in the lock. Maybe you have taken a key for duplication and came home to find it didn’t work. One reason for not working is that the duplicate key you took had imperfections that were copied onto the new key.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy encouraged the Thessalonians to imitate them. By imitating Paul and his team, the Thessalonians became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. Their holy lives were seen and duplicated across an entire region. Paul used the same idea in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.” Paul says there is value in imitating he and his team. Paul and his team did the best job they could to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul specifically mentions their welcoming acceptance of the Gospel amidst suffering.

Each bump and cut-out on a key is specifically designed to match the pattern of the tumblers inside the corresponding lock. We make copies of keys for a number of reasons. However, if a duplicate key does not follow the pattern, the lock won’t open. With each copy of a key, there is a greater chance for imperfections to appear because you are farther from the original.

Paul encourages the Thessalonians to imitate he and his team because he understands that those who seek to be imitated must be imitators. While Paul encourages the Thessalonians to imitate him, He ultimately points to Christ as the one who is to be the focus of their imitation. The Greek word in verse 6 for imitators strongly indicates that the Thessalonians weren’t simply followers, but they were intentionally investing time and devoting themselves to learning everything they could in order to live holy lives.

Unlike the homeowner who hides their spare key and hesitates to make too many copies for fear that one gets lost or won’t work, God seeks more and more copies of Himself. What did God command of the people in Leviticus 19:2? ““Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.”

We may be the only copy of this Holy God that someone else sees on the bus, in the office, or at school. Are you willing to live a holy life that impacts others? My challenge to you today is to imitate Paul’s attitude. Where is it uncomfortable or challenging for you to live as Christ modeled? Will your holy life be copied after Christ or copied after something else? Devote intentional time this week to becoming more like Christ.

Our closing song, Be Thou My Vision, provides us with the starting blocks.

Let Christ be our vision, let Christ be our first thought. Let Christ be our wisdom and let Christ be our victory won!