Imitating God
How do you imitate God? Be omnipresent, all-knowing, or all-powerful? How about speaking things into existence? “Almighty Doug” has a nice ring to it, but it’s never happening. Yet Paul tells us to “be imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1). So what do we do?
The Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). So perhaps the best way to emulate God is to love. But loving others can be as challenging as creating a universe! It’s not easy for us humans. It’s difficult and often painful.
As demonstrated by Jesus, loving God’s way requires great sacrifice. It cost Him everything. Yet, it’s precisely the kind of love we are to give others. Paul says we imitate God by loving others “just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Ephesians 5:2).
Love that denies oneself for the sake of others is not natural. It’s natural for people to care more about themselves than others. Sadly, the natural bent toward selfishness is reinforced in children’s minds through the behavior of adults. Adults practice immorality, impurity, and filthiness, which Paul labels “not fitting” (Ephesians 5:4). One commentator describes these as “self-centered vices in conduct and speech … the opposite of the self-sacrificing love.” Kids can observe this behavior in adults on any given weekend at their sports activities. According to kidzworld.com:
A high school basketball referee in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania may have considered asking for “danger pay” after a parent body slammed him on the gym floor during a game…. Peter Dukovich was charged with assault for his wrestling maneuver, which happened just moments after his wife was asked to leave the game for yelling and swearing at the same referee.
Youngsters imitate grown-ups. We are all the products of those we’ve imitated in our lives. When role models practice unfitting behavior toward others, we need a change in role models. Mere human role models won’t do. We can only break the cycle as we imitate God and those who imitate God.
So who are we imitating in the church? Does the way we treat each other in the church reflect self-sacrificing love or the self-centered vices of the world? Unfortunately, many churches today are indistinguishable from the world regarding how individuals treat each other. “Loving like Jesus” or similar phrases are part of many churches’ vision statements, but sadly, it is not a prominent part of their practice.
The struggle to imitate God by loving as Christ loved is nothing new. Hence, Paul saw the need to address it in his letter to the Ephesians and others. But the only way we will become people who live and love selflessly rather than selfishly is to focus on the ultimate role model.
Pastor and author Tim Keller wrote: “Christians are transformed as we accept how Christ served and died for us while we were unworthy of his love. Why wouldn’t you want to offer yourself to someone like this?”
So how do you imitate God? It doesn’t require that you attain omnipresence, omniscience, or omnipotence as personal attributes. But it means you give yourself to the One who loved you selflessly and sacrificially, showing you how to love as He loves.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” ─John 13:34