Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
People are imitators! We imitate our favorite entertainers, athletes, leaders, and anyone that we really like or look up to. Imitating others seems to be ingrained in our human psyche. Somehow, copying another person’s ways, words, and even their odd or strange habits, sometimes, comes somewhat naturally for us. Imitating others can be a great blessing. But it can also be a great cause of problems. If you imitate the wrong people, you will end up internalizing their ungodly or unwise values and ways. And if you continue imitating them over a long period of time, your life can eventually become like their troubled lives. But if you imitate the right people, you can be empowered to become a better person and a more effective servant of God. Today, we want to talk about imitating Christ. We will really do well to do that. Specifically, we want to capture Christ’s passion for the spiritually lost. This is an often neglected side of the Christian life. Many believers follow Christ’s example in righteous living, in generosity, in kindness, and other virtues. They seek to practice these things regularly as part of their lifestyle. But they fail to copy Christ’s active pursuit of the spiritually lost. That is a big omission. We fall short of God’s will in a significant way if we overlook Christ’s wholehearted devotion to see the spiritually lost and dying get the help and salvation they desperately need. Brothers and sisters, God the Father’s heart beats for people who are living apart from a positive relationship with him. He was so consumed with a desire to see people restored to a right relationship with him that he gave his one and only Son to die just so that forgiveness of sins can be made possible. On his part, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, volunteered to die on behalf of sinful, rebellious humans. He gave up the glories of his rule in heaven and became a human sacrifice that would make it possible for people to be made right with God. While he lived on earth as a Jew in Israel some 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ modelled for us a passion to seek and save the lost. For him, that was his life mission (see Luke 19:10). He kept nothing back, and he gave everything up to see to it that he is able to complete his mission. You and I are also called by God to imitate him and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Let us walk in the way of the Master. Let us passionately seek the spiritually lost until they are all found! Lathur Badoy