City Life Starter

The Word: I Corinthians 11:1

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

By Scott Fiddler

People disagree about whether the Apostle Paul’s command in I Corinthians 11:1 is a conclusion to chapter 10 or an introduction to chapter 11. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter because Paul’s command is clear regardless of whether it’s a conclusion or introduction: “Imitate me the way I imitate Jesus.”

Paul gave plenty of commands to the Corinthians, but in addition to those commands, he told them to imitate him just as he imitated Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus is more than just being obedient to His commands; it means becoming like Jesus. See Romans 8:29 (“For those whom He foreknew He predestined to become conformed to the image of Christ.”). Some things are too complex to convey by instructions alone, an example is needed.

No one can learn to play golf merely be following instructions. The golf swing has too many moving parts, not to mention that those parts must move in the right sequence at a proper tempo. Can you imagine never having seen a good player swing a golf club and trying to develop a good golf swing through instruction only: “Take the club away from the ball slowly, but not too slowly, while turning your shoulders away from the ball, but don’t move your weight outside your right foot. While doing this don’t move your head, and keep your grip light. Before the club feels like it reaches the top of your swing turn your hips back to the ball, while letting the clubhead feel like it is lagging behind the handle of the club as you turn left through ball while releasing the clubhead through the ball toward the target and finishing with your chest square to the target. Got it?

But you know what? You can have a 12-year-old watch a professional golfer swing and by imitation and little or no instruction develop a very good golf swing. Somethings are caught rather than taught.

My wife, Cindy, and I were in a church in Northwest Houston for about ten years. The pastor had been a successful businessman in real estate an had become very wealthy before he became a pastor. He knew how to lead people. After we joined the church, Cindy and I became friends with him and his wife and I asked him to disciple me. We took trips with him and his wife, we hung out, and basically did life together. And I watched.

I watched how he led the church, how he led meetings, and how he led people. I have been disciplined by different people but from him more than anyone else I learned about leadership. I couldn’t list all I learned from him about leadership because much of what I learned cannot be reduced to axioms; they can just be imitated. I learned by watching him and doing likewise.

Here, Paul is telling the Corinthians to remember what they saw in him and imitate that, but he includes in his command a qualification, “as I follow Christ.” In other words, if Paul’s behavior was not reflective of Jesus’, the Corinthians were not to imitate him in that regard. Paul was only a man; he was not sinless and perfect like Jesus.  Paul was trusting the Corinthians to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Application

Discipleship is more than just teaching or transmitting information. It is connecting yourselves to others in a relationship who are farther down the road with Jesus than you and following them as they follow Jesus. On the flip side, discipleship is about doing life with those younger in the Lord and imparting those things of Jesus that have been imparted to you.

In short, God’s plan for conforming you to the image of Jesus does not consist merely in sermons, podcasts, and Christian books but in discipleship.