Today the world is full of imitation! Some like to imitate popular stars, others their leaders and especially little children like to imitate their teachers. But everyone misses the right person to imitate-Why? Because they have not known or seen him. Who is this person? It is the Lord Jesus Christ! Here Paul tells us to imitate God. Jesus told us to imitate God when He said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) He went even further when He commanded: “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt.5:48)

The entire Christian life may be summed up as a life of imitating God as beloved children, as we walk in love. To imitate God, we must be His beloved children. The Bible is clear that we become children of God when we are born into His family through a spiritual new birth. To imitate God is comprehensive: we should know Him and His ways, revealed to us from His word. 

 

To imitate God, we should spend time in His word and in prayer 

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To have an intimate relationship with God and know His ways, only comes through time spent in His Word and in prayer. If you want God to change you, so that you imitate Him in the way you think, how you respond emotionally, how you relate to others, how you deal with life situations, you must be diligent to spend consistent time alone with Him. 

Imitating God includes speaking the truth, because He is the God of truth. It includes being faithful in our dealings with others, because He is a faithful God. It includes being holy in all our behavior, because He is holy. But the characteristic that Paul mentions to sum it all up is love (Eph.5:2): “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” 

 

To imitate God, we must walk in love, just as Christ loved us 

 

Christ’s example of Love had five elements in it: i) it was costly- He gave His life ii)caring- like a shepherd iii) conspicuous- visible in demonstrating His love iv) committed- nothing deterred Him going to the cross v) consecrated- set apart his life to save mankind.

TO WALK IN LOVE IS A LIFELONG PROCESS!

We are called to walk in a manner worthy of God’s calling as children of light and not walk as Gentiles do in the futility of their mind. We should walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise To Walk in love, we must look to Christ who is our atoning sacrifice and our supreme example. Understanding Christ only as our example is not enough; the foundation for following Christ’s example of love, is to trust in His atoning sacrifice for our sins. Christ took the initiative to give Himself on our behalf even when there was no motivation to love us- while we were still sinners(Romans 5:8). He did this in His own loving nature to please His Father.

Christ’s loyal love brought Peter and the others through all of their failures to become the godly apostles of the early church. His love motivates us! He now calls on us to sacrificially love those who may not be very loveable. Since God is love, we imitate Him by walking in love, motivated by Christ’s sacrificial love that saved us from our sins.

Prayer: Almighty God we come to Your presence as Your dearly loved children and we ask Your grace to help us imitate You out of passionate love towards You, in Jesus name we pray Amen.