“Imitate Me”

The apostle Paul declares this at least 6 times in the Bible, in 1 Co. 4:16; 1 Co. 11:1; Fp. 3:17; 1 Ts. 1:6; 1 Ts. 4:1 and 2 Ts. 3:9. Here are some of these passages:

1 Cor. 4:16 – “Therefore I urge you, imitate me.”

1 Cor. 11:1 – “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ..”

Phil. 3:17 – “ Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.”

In Philippians he goes further, saying “imitate those who imitate me“.

The first time someone reads these passages, it’s easy to conclude he was someone proud of himself, arrogant, who had no humilty.

And we would be totally wrong to have such a conclusion.

He tells us to imitate him. But how? In which situations?

1) Wait for the right time

Even though he was someone totally capable, with a deep knowledge of the Torah (he was a era “Pharisee, son of Pharisees“), with tremendous audacity, Paul was only released to the missionary ministry many years after his conversion.

When he fell from the horse on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-4), he entered the city, was blind for 3 days (Acts 9:9), got saved and was baptized (Acts 9:18). Then, he spent 3 years in Arabia (Gl. 1:17-18), other 5 years in Syria, Cilicia and Tarsus, his home town (Gl. 1:21), then, 3 more years serving at the church in Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:22, Acts 11:25), as a teacher (Acts 13:1) and even with social work (Acts 11:29-30). Only then was he separated for missions – 11 years later!

And how many times have we thought that we’re capable, only because we’ve gone to a 5-day conference, or because we’ve attended church for 5 years, or even because someone has laid their hands on us.

Paulo knew how to wait for the right time. And he was the 2nd greatest missionary of all – second only to Jesus, the Messiah.

 

2) Submission

Even though his leadership abilities were extremely accurate, he knew how to submit wherever he went, in every situation of his life.

In his First Missionary Journey he preached only to Jews:

Acts 13:5 – “And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.”

Acts 13:14 – “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.”

Acts 14:1 – “Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed..”

He didn’t preach directly to Gentiles, even though he was totally sure that was his calling, as we read in Gl. 1:16:

“…to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…”

Why? Because the Church at that time hadn’t yet understood that salvation as also for the Gentiles.

At the end of his First Journey, he gets together, along with Barnabas, with the apostles in Jerusalem, who understand that Jesus came to save everyone, not only Jews (Acts 15). Only then he starts preaching freely to the Gentiles:

Gl. 2:9 – “and when James, Cephas [Peter], and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”

Furthermore, after 3 Missionary Journeys and after writing 7 epistles which are today a part of the New Testament, he listened to the apostles when they asked him to purify himself:

Acts 21:23-26 – “ ²³ Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. ²⁴ Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. ²⁵ But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.” ²⁶ Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them, entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them.”

Paul didn’t have to do it – and he knew that. But he did it. Why? Because he understood and followed the principle of submission to authority.

 

3) Lower himself

Although the sentence “imitate me” seems to reveal some arrogant individual, it was said, actually, by someone who became smaller every day.

In his 3rd Missionary Journey, around the year 55 A.D. Paul wrote, in 1 Co. 15:9:

“For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

When he wrote that, he’d already founded around 10 churches in Galatia, Macedonia and Greece, beside writing 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Galatians.

Later, he wrote in Eph. 3:8:

“To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,”

At that time he was imprisoned in Rome (he’d spent 2 years in prison in Cesarea), after he wrote Romans, among other 7 books of the New Testament.

Further down the road, around 3-4 years before he was killed, he wrote in 1 Tim. 1:15, after he having written 11 epistles, which are a part of the New Testament today:

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.“

Paul described himself as “the least of the apostles”, “the least of all saints” e “chief of sinners”.

Why? Because he understood that “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30). The more he knew about Jesus, the more he learned from Him, the more he grew in intimacy with Him, the more he felt unworthy and smaller.

 

4) Fulfill the mission to the end

In Acts 21:11, Paul receives a prophecy (through a prophetic act) that he would be arrested in Jerusalem:

“When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ””

But that didn’t stop him! He knew that, even if he was arrested, God had told him to go to Rome. And he was willing to go to the end of his mission:

Acts 21:15 – “And after those days we packed and went up to Jerusalem.”

There he was arrested, and spent 2 years in Cesareia, with formal charges, before his voyage to Rom. In that journey he went through storms and a shipwreck, but didn’t stop (Acts 27).

Paul knew what was his mission. And he knew he had to go until the end.

Do you want to imitate Paul? So, wait for the right time, submit yourself e fulfill the mission to the end, so that you may also say:

2 Tim. 4:7-8 – “⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”