IMITATORS OF GOD

      For many years, I have been very cautious about any attempt for me, or anyone, to be “like God.” My thinking was that since God is absolute purity, holiness, power, and knowledge, how could I ever be like that? How could I be any of those things that make God, God? Besides, there is that verse in Genesis 3:5 where Satan is encouraging Eve to eat the fruit by saying, “you will be like God.” I have never liked that phrase coming from one so evil.

      Yet, over the course of recent years, I have realized more strongly that Jesus Christ came as our example. Through Jesus, we see God revealed to us as the way we should live in our humanity. We are to imitate Jesus, and as we do, we imitate God. 

      The passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1 tells us, “So you should be imitators of God, like dear children.” It is amazing how quickly young children learn by imitation of what they hear and see. Our newest grandchild, John Howard, has to see an action, or hear a word or sound, only a few times before he is able to imitate. Paul says we should be imitators of God the same way.

      Dr. Dennis Kinlaw in his book, “This Day With the Master,” says if we stop at the first verse of Ephesians 5, we will find ourselves frustrated with the impossibility of imitating God. “First of all, he is the omnipotent One. A few in history have tried to be all-powerful, but ended up as fools. Second, God is the omniscient One. But when I am in the process of finding an answer to a question, I discover that I have ten more questions. So, my experience is one of exploding ignorance, not knowledge…Third, he is the omnipresent One. But I am confined to one moment in time and one point in space. How can I imitate God?”

      We find the answer to that question when we read the second verse of Ephesians 5. “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.” Kinlaw continues, “God wants us to imitate his lifestyle, not his attributes. …to imitate the life of love that flows from self-sacrifice modeled by Jesus. …to model the God we see on the Cross, the God who cares more for others than he cares for himself.

Paul believed that God can put his own love within us, if we want it and seek it. Then we can live as he lived because he will be living through us.”

      Our passage from Ephesians 5 is surrounded by Paul’s mandates on how we are to live, what we are to do and not do. The fulfillment of these mandates cannot be accomplished without heart change and divine transformation. I am reminded here of Thomas a Kempis’ classic book, “The Imitation of Christ.” a Kempis focuses upon the change that must take place within a person’s heart, mind, and soul as his/her lifestyle begins to model and imitate God.

      Can we fulfill the mandate to imitate God? I believe we can, but we must first begin with Jesus, the beginning and the finishing of our faith in a God who transforms.

Rev. Tim McConnell, Long’s Chapel UMC, May 5, 2013