We spent time with our almost two-year old granddaughter a few weeks ago. She loves going to the playground where she follows bigger kids around and tries to do what they do. If they go down a slide, she goes down. If they climb back up the slide she wants to climb back up. If one drinks from a puddle she bends over to take a sip. She mimics the older kids.

Paul urged the church members in Corinth to mimic him. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

The word imitate comes from the same root word of mimic. Paul encouraged these young followers of Jesus to copy his ways. So how were they to imitate Paul?

In the preceding verses Paul described his missionary experiences. We are fools for Christ… We are weak, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

Not sure I want to mimic that lifestyle. But Paul speaks to humility, to trusting God despite circumstances and how others mistreat us, to continue to pursue the Lord as we go through life.

Paul was one of the big kids on the playground. Not because he was tougher or richer or more intimidating, but because he humbly followed the Lord through every challenge in life. That’s a person worth imitating.

1 Corinthians 4 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Sigmund