This sermon explores Paul’s command to “be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ,” emphasizing that Christian life is relational and calls believers to model their lives after godly examples who ultimately reflect Christ’s selfless, sacrificial nature.
Transcript
Please open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
We’re going to begin this chapter today, but we’re not going to go very far. We’re going to look at the first verse.
Because, I mentioned this last week, verse one goes with the previous section. I’m anxious to get into chapter 11 with the instruction that it has here, but I don’t want to hurry into this section because if we do so, we might miss out on something that God has for us.
That simple verse that begins chapter 11, which is actually should have gone in chapter 10. Stephen Langton, by the way, is the one who divided the New Testament up into chapters back in the 12th and 13th century, the beginning of the 13th century, somewhere around 1205. He divided the New Testament up into the chapters, and we’ve followed that tradition ever since. It wasn’t until I guess it was the beginning of the 1600s that Robert Stephanus divided the section up. He broke the chapter before it ended, before this little section ended, and it included, when Paul says, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ,” that doesn’t hang on its own. It certainly doesn’t go with what’s next. He’s not giving an example that they’re to follow in what comes next. He’s just given the example. He gave the example all through chapter 9, and he reaffirmed it in these closing verses of chapter 10. And that’s the particular example that he has in mind.
So let’s read those again, beginning in verse 31 to verse 1 of chapter 11.
I have found neither to the Jews, nor to the Greeks, nor to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own prophet, but the prophet of the many so that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
So that’s the context, and that’s the text.
Let’s ask God to bless the reading this morning.
Father, as we consider this verse this morning, this text that you have for us, we pray, Lord, that you help us to understand the nature of this commandment from your word. Father, that we would understand it and apply it to our hearts and lives. Father, that in understanding this text and its application, we would find the joy that you have for us through this. We pray in the name of our Savior, Lord Jesus, that you give us the strength and the wisdom to understand this verse rightly and to apply it to our lives. His name, Amen.
Paul’s Command
Well, “Be imitators of me,” Paul says. I wonder how many people, I mean I’m sure a number of people, read that verse, and it just bothers them a little bit. It bothers them that Paul would say, “Imitate me, imitate my life.” I mean, is this some kind of arrogance? Is Paul saying that I’ve got it all together and I’m sinless, and so you should model yourself on my life?
Well, Paul certainly doesn’t say that he’s sinless. In fact, if you remember in his letter to Timothy, which follows this by some time, he says,
It’s a trustworthy statement, deserving of all acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I’m foremost.
So Paul recognized his unsentful nature. He’s not claiming sinlessness when he makes this claim for us to be followers of him, to imitate him.
Rather, he’s doing something that God has prescribed for believers to do, and particularly for Paul as an apostle. He is encouraging them to follow him as a pattern of life, as a model, because God instructs believers to do that. That’s actually the nature of the commission of the Lord Jesus to the church. When the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 28, just before the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, he says,
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
“Make disciples,” he says. The discipleship process is this: it’s living your life in such a way that some people can see it, so that some people can see Jesus in you. It’s instructing people in the word of God and in the truth of God’s word, but doing that in a way that is real by taking the truths of God’s word and applying them to your own life first.
So the things that Paul was doing, and all these directions that he has given them in 1 Corinthians, all this instruction, all this doctrinal teaching that he gives in these letters, in Corinthians, and Ephesians, and Colossians, and Galatians, these are passages that the Apostle applies first of all to himself and is changed and sanctified through it, and then teaches others.
And so one of the ways that we see that it’s not just some kind of arrogance. He calls the people that he’s led to Christ to follow him. But in saying that, he immediately points away from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” But he’s not afraid to say, “Be imitators of me.” You remember we touched on this back in chapter 4 when he says that. He stops right there. He says, he encourages them to imitate his life.
There is a kind of authority that’s behind this command. It’s apostolic authority in this case. He’s saying, “Follow me,” but it’s the authority of the discipler to the disciplee. It’s not an authoritarianism; he’s not exceeding the authority that he has. It’s just the authority of the person, it’s the authority that a man has who’s been instructed of God as he teaches and disciples the person that he’s led to the Lord.
So, we are to do this. You know, one of the things, one of the things that we must understand from this verse is that this isn’t just to the Corinthian church; this is to us. We are specifically told in God’s word to follow the example of the Apostle Paul as he follows Christ.
Relational Christianity
The thing in particular that he’s talking about is this attitude and characteristic that he had to not seek his own profit or his own way, but to prefer everyone else, literally everyone else, before himself. It’s a very Christ-like quality.
So that’s a truth. You know, there’s something really remarkable in this pattern that God set up for us, that Christianity is so relational. It’s a relational, it has to do with relationships. It has to do with our relationship with God first of all, and our and the indwelling of Christ in us, the indwelling Holy Spirit within us.
But it has to do with relationships and people. There are more than 1,500 commandments in the New Testament. Think about that. 1,500 commandments, 1,500 imperatives in the New Testament.
Now, you could take these 1,500 commandments and be like the Pharisees and make long lists and detail them and make principles for each one and structure your lives according to that, and we would have a very legalistic religion. But God didn’t do that. That’s not the way the New Testament works. We’re not to live our lives that way, in that type of structured, you know, strict, rigid kind of forcing my will to obey these things and demanding it of everyone else.
You know, it’s a relationship. It’s a relationship with God that is born of love. And so we do the things that God wants us to do simply because we love God. We do what he wants us to do simply because we love him.
But it’s also a relationship with people, and it’s meant to be that way. We are to, there’s to be a pattern, and so we as we grow up in Jesus Christ, we’re to pattern our lives around godly people who have been sanctified by Jesus Christ.
Modeling Godly Examples
Now, it may come to your mind that old saying, you know, “Don’t put your eyes on any man because he’s sure to fail you. Keep your eyes on Christ.” Well, there’s truth to that. I don’t want to take away that truth. But it’s not completely true.
The pattern of scripture is that God intends for us to learn from each other and from the grace of God that is worked out in the lives of his people. We’re to learn from other people, and we’re to select, we’re to model ourselves after people at times, godly people.
Now, we have to choose the right people, or they should choose us, actually, and they should be there for us, ministering to us, and that should be the reason that we’re able to recognize them.
There are all kinds of people who, pretty much everybody, almost everybody in this world, I don’t I can’t think of a person in this world that I’ve ever met that didn’t have something in their life that I could look to and use as an example for myself. That’s not what we’re supposed to do here. I’m just saying that there’s something, because men are created in the image of God, there’s usually something in everybody that is worth thinking about and considering. You know, even a mafia boss. Even a mafia boss has many things about them that’s probably good. I mean, they’re probably, they might love the opera and support the arts. Be kind to their mothers.
Actually, if you start to think about it, even though they defy the law, there’s a great order within their community, in their organization and in their community. There’s remarkable laws and orders and systems that work in that little order that they have, and they are faithful to it. You better be. And sometimes you could probably see fidelity to there, to their system and courage and all kinds of things. You know, that would commend them as mafia bosses. And they do some things that the law says to do. They just don’t do it because the law says it. They do it because it suits their purpose.
Of course, we wouldn’t want to choose someone like that as an example because they’re opposed to God in at heart. You see, it’s easy to see that with an extreme example like that. It’s harder when you deal with, say, church people. Who should you choose as an example? I mean, who do you model your life after?
You know, people do all kinds of good things. They may be a good citizen, they might give a million dollars to build a hospital, but they cannot give a cup of water to a person in the name of the Lord Jesus if they’re not regenerate. There’s a spiritual quality that comes with the relationship that they have with Jesus Christ, and that’s the predominant thing. You know, people can do all kinds of good works. But the problem is their motives, and they’re not doing it to glorify God. They’re doing it for all kinds of reasons. They they’re living their life for their own glory. That’s not the person that can say, “Be imitators of me,” and we follow.
It’s got to be a person who is a follower of Christ, who’s able to teach us how to follow Christ, and who’s living their life in such a way that we can recognize Christ in them. You know, one of the things that you can do here that’s worth mentioning is read biographies of great Christian people. You know, if you read Jim Elliot’s diary, you would learn something pretty remarkable about the Lord Jesus by reading Jim Elliot’s diary. And one of the things that you would learn about Jim Elliot in reading that diary is he did that. He modeled himself, he read other biographies of great Christians. He read, you know, the life of David Brainerd, and he read the life of Hudson Taylor, and he interacted with it, and from their examples of obeying Christ, he learned to obey Christ.
So all those words and commandments that’s in the word of God, they’re there for us to guide us, and we have the Holy Spirit in a relational way to lead us. But God also gave us his church and people whom he gifted in order to instruct us and to build us up in the faith.
Christ’s Example
And every one of us is to model our lives on Jesus Christ. One of the ways that we’re enabled to do that by the grace of God is through the grace that’s operative in other believers. And we’re not to forget that it’s Christ ultimately that’s the pattern for our life. We’re to be imitators of the Apostle Paul just as he is of Christ.
And so we’re to follow him. Some of your texts read that way, “Follow me as I also follow Christ.” You know, we’re to imitate him, we’re to pattern our life after him, we’re to follow him. And following implies a direction. As Psalm 119 says,
Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me into the way everlasting.
And Jesus in John 14 says to his disciples, “I’m the way.”
I’m the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
People who have been born of God, people who are truly regenerate, born again, naturally seek to follow Christ. They naturally want to pattern their life after Christ. That’s the quality that is in all, that is in every true believer.
We’re to pattern our life after the Lord Jesus. You know, there’s an important verse here that’s in 1 John, and I’m going to turn to it, so that I have it in my notes somewhere, but I’m going to turn to it so that I don’t misquote it. And you can turn to it if you wish. 1 John, beginning in chapter 3, verse 1, it says,
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God. And such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it’s not appeared yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.
Now pay attention. Look at verse 3.
And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
That’s a remarkable verse. Everyone who has this hope on him, in him, purifies himself just as he’s pure. We want to be pure like Christ is pure.
One of the things that’s interesting about this verse is I talked about the 1,500 imperatives that you find in the Bible. This isn’t one of them. There’s no commandment here. He’s not commanding the children of God to purify themselves just as he is pure. What John is saying in this verse is that’s what they do. He’s saying that a person who is born of God, who’s a child of God, naturally wants to be like the Lord Jesus, whom they love. And it’s natural for them to do it. They do it. They purify themselves just as he’s pure.
So we are to purify ourselves. We are to, to live like Christ lived. Christ is the pattern that we’re to follow. You know, when we follow the Apostle Paul, we’re following Jesus Christ in the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 2:20,
I’ve been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
And so, as Paul is sanctified and is made holy, as he’s living a godly life, he becomes an example, and people can see Jesus Christ in his life. And as they see Jesus Christ, they see the transforming grace of God.
In this verse, in chapter 11 and verse 1, what exactly is it that we’re to do in following Christ? And what is Paul mean more specifically? You know, we talk about, there’s all kinds of ways, all kinds of examples. Jesus led a perfect life. And so throughout the New Testament, there are things that are shown to us that Jesus could do, that could be the pattern for our life. It’s the outworking of the life. But all of the New Testament is, you can’t live a godly life and deny doctrine, or act as if it’s irrelevant. It’s the outworking of the teaching of God in our hearts that that, you know, that we actually experience the practical truth of the righteousness that God has for us. Take the doctrine of salvation. I mean, justification. God sees us in Christ. When he looks at us who have been redeemed and saved and in the blood of Christ, he doesn’t see a sinner. He sees the Lord Jesus in his perfection and in his righteousness.
So God sees us in Christ. It only follows that Christ should be seen in us. We should magnify the name of Christ in the world around us so that they see Christ when they see us. God in his salvation did a great work of love for us. He secured our salvation. And we’re to live a life of love that reflects God’s mercy and grace. That’s what we’re called to. We’re to be imitators of God as beloved children, it says in Ephesians 5:1. And so that means that we’re to realize in practical living the truths of God’s word that we understand. When we understand something of the grace of God, when we understand the grace of God, that we need to understand that that grace of God is there to lead us to godliness and to a godly life.
So we’re to be like Christ in purity and holiness. As John said, you know, everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. We’re to live, you know, before Christ in integrity. As in Ephesians, the Apostle Paul would speaking the truth and love, we’re to grow up in every way into him who’s the head, into Christ. And so we grow up into Christ as we immulate Christ. So Christ is the example. He’s the most perfect, absolute, glorious pattern of grace, and holiness, and virtue, and obedience, and he is to be chosen. And we’re to model our lives on him because he’s the most glorious person who’s ever lived in this world. He’s the most glorious being because he is God in the flesh.
But when we talk about this verse, it has a context. And that context has to do with the Apostle Paul’s own selflessness and the example of selflessness. He’s struggling with the Corinthians because the Corinthians are out for themselves. They are immature in the faith, and they want recognition. They have divided themselves into these little groups, and the groups are competitive, and they’re looking for to meet their own ends. They’re asking for their own things. They want their own rights. “If I want to eat meat sacrificed to idols, what do I care what it does to anybody else?” That’s their attitude may not have been that extreme, but it was in that direction, and Paul was very concerned about it.
So he gives an example of his own life. All of chapter 9 is the sacrifices that he made as he was preaching and teaching the Corinthians and leading them to Christ, how he as a pastor deserved, had the right to be given financial support from the people he ministered to. But he gave that up. He sewed tents together to earn a living so that they wouldn’t be burdened, so they wouldn’t confuse the gospel or think that he was in it for the money. He was sacrificial. And so in every way, and in everything, he says in verse 30, “Just as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the prophet of the many so that they may be saved.” He’s saying, “I prefer them over myself. Whenever I have a right, I’m willing to give up that right in order to see someone come to faith in Christ or grow up spiritually in Jesus Christ.” And that’s the point. That’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, “If you want to be like, he’s saying, “You should be like that. You should be like me as I do that, look, learn from my example, because that’s the way Christ is.” And Christ is exactly, exactly like that.
In chapter 4, chapter 4, verse 16, he had a shorter version of this. He said, “Therefore, I urge you to imitate me.” “Imitate me” in what way? Well, he’s just described the suffering that he has gone through, especially in regard in light of his apostleship, but in his ministry and in connection with the Corinthian church. In his way of suffering. He, he, he says, “Up to this point,” in chapter 4, he says, “Up to this point and hour, we’re both hungry and thirsty, we’re poorly clothed, and roughly treated, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. And when we’re verbally abused, we bless. And when we’re persecuted, we endure it. And when we’re slandered, we reply as friends. We have become the scum of the world and the dregs of all things even until now, and you should be like me.” That’s what he’s saying. The Lord Jesus suffered for other people. The Lord Jesus, you know, sacrificed for others.
You know, think, think once again about that beautiful chapter in John, John chapter 13, when the Lord Jesus takes out and washes his disciples’ feet. He washes his feet, and then he tells them that a servant is not greater than his master. What he’s saying is, “I’m your master, and you’re the servants, and if I wash your feet, then you should be servants too. You should be serving others.” And then he says in verse 17, “If you know, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. He’s saying, “I’m a servant, and I took the role of a servant, and you are to be servants of one another. You are to imitate me in this humble servitude. And if you do this, you’ll be happy.” We got a whole world, I mean, the whole world is out to pursue their own happiness. That’s what they’re after. And they do it by putting down people or by seeking all sorts of entertainments where people sometimes are exploited in various ways. All kinds of things. It doesn’t lead to happiness. None of those things does.
Jesus said, “Give up your life in order to gain it.” People serve churches for all kinds of reasons. How many people enter into leadership in a church, and they seek it out because they want to be important in the church. And they want some recognition. And if they don’t get the recognition, you know, they’ll seek it somewhere else. They want some kind of recognition. Is that following the pattern of Christ?
I’ll tell you who it’s following. You know, back in in Isaiah, God, God gives us his word. He says,
How you are fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning. For you set in your heart, I will ascend into the heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north, and I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and I will be like the most high.
That’s Lucifer. How easy it is to follow a pattern like that. Consider Jesus’ example.
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself.
It describes in that chapter 2 of Philippians him giving up the glory of heaven in order to become a man. And not just a man, but a man who becomes a servant, and a servant who takes on the cross and death for his people. That’s exactly, exactly the opposite. That’s the pattern that we’re called to. That’s the pattern that Paul has in mind when he says, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”
And you know, we are to be that pattern. We’re to live a life that pursues purity and holiness, and we should live a life so that we can introduce somebody to Jesus Christ and say to them, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” That’s what it means to make disciples. We should live a life that is so right that people can see something of God in us, something of the nature of our Lord Jesus in us. If we live a life like that, then we can, then God can use us in to, that’s that’s the only way that that great commandment can be fulfilled. When we make disciples, we make someone who in some ways is going to be like us. It’s like an apprentice who studies under a journeyman or a master. And they learn from them until they’re like the master. They they become like them. For a believer, we’re to live our lives pursuing godliness, not, not because as rule keeping, not in in taking making a a measure of things and making all of these rules to keep us obedient to him, but it is out of a relationship. It is out of the love that we have for him that we want to do it, and so we serve him, and we seek him, and we make our life a pattern that others can follow.
If Peter says,
You have been called for this purpose since Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps. If you know that he’s righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
So that’s where we’re going to leave it today. I want to encourage you to examine your life. And as you examine your life, purpose to live a life that follows Christ close enough that you can say to someone, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” And reach out with love and care for some other person, and share with them what Christ has done for you.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for your mercy and your kindness to us. We need your grace, Lord. And we recognize that there’s no way that we can be like the Lord Jesus apart from the work of your Holy Spirit within us. So we pray, Father, for the ministry and grace of the Spirit, that he works in each of us so that we can be more like our Savior, the Lord Jesus. We thank you for the gospel and the transforming grace that we have in the gospel. We ask, Father, that as we as we think about our Savior, the Lord Jesus, that we would live a life more like him, that we would be willing to give up the things that are precious and important to us in order for the good of others, for the blessing of others, that many might come to faith in Christ and grow up in the truth of him, and that you would bless them in all these things. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.