1 Corinthians 4 - 9.30.26
Scripture: 1 Cor 4:16
“Therefore I urge you to imitate me”
Observation
This is from Paul’s second letter to Corinthians. In the verse before this, Paul reminds the church of Corinthians that though they have many guardians in Christ, it was Paul who brought them to the Lord, and therefore he is their spiritual father (1 Cor 4:15). Then he asks them to imitate him.
In a parallel verse, Paul says “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1, AMP)
Application
Can truly ask the people we mentor to imitate us? Do we reflect Christ? Does our character show Christ not only when we are in front of others, but also when we are by ourselves with our guards down, and in our authentic selves? Can we tell our spouse and our children as Paul said, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ”?
I love the Sunday School song - “He is still working on me to make me what I ought to be; It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and jupiter and mars; How loving and patient he must be, he is still working on me!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr4okXv4Qn0&list=RDKr4okXv4Qn0&start_radio=1)
Thank God for his patience, and for his forgiveness, and for his redemption when our walk falls from his standards, and we are poor reflections of Christ. Thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Let us pray that we will be able to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Col 1:10). Let us walk in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Rom 13:14).
Prayer
Dear Father, Thank you for loving me. Thank you for your patience with me. I want to be like you. I pray that I will be conformed to the image of your son (Rom 8:29). I pray that you will work in me, and will transform me to your image (2 Cor 3:18). You have promised that when you are revealed, I will be like you for I shall see you as you are (1 John 3:2). I pray that this mind will be in me, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). I pray that you will help me to travail in prayer till Christ is formed in me (Gal 4:19). I pray that I will walk just as you walked (1 John 2:6). I pray that the name of God will not be blasphemed among the Gentiles because of me (Rom 2:24). I pray that you will help me to present my body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is my reasonable service, and that I will not be conformed to this world, but will be transformed by the renewing of my mind, that I may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom 12:1-2). Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight (Ps 19:4). In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.
- Asha Chacko George
