Imitation
This article is featured on UpSideDown21 and portlandchurch.org
 |
| Amy and Jeremy Ciaramella |
“For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4-8
Paul, Silas, and Timothy wrote these moving words to the church in Thessalonica. You can feel the deep sense of relationship between these leaders and the church they planted. (Acts 17:1-8) Later in the 1 Thessalonian letter, they compare their involvement in each other’s lives to “a mother caring for her little children” as well as “a father dealing with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging [them] to live lives worthy of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2: 11-12)
The brothers and sisters in Thessalonica experienced firsthand “the power, the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction” in Paul, Silas and Timothy’s words and lives. (1 Thessalonians 1:5) Since the Thessalonians imitated their faith and lives, their church became a model for other churches, the message rang out from them and their faith became known everywhere!
If the message is going to ring out from any church or any disciple, the conviction to imitate must be there. The Lord said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10) and “Come, follow me…and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17) Jesus gave them an example of how to “fish for men” by going from town to town and from synagogue to synagogue preaching and healing. From the beginning of His ministry Jesus preached, “The Kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17) Jesus called the apostles to preach, “The Kingdom of heaven is near” when he sent them out, because this is what He Himself preached. (Matthew 10:7)
Paul followed Jesus’ example as well. Jesus went from synagogue to synagogue with His disciples preaching the “good news of the Kingdom” (Matthew 4:23) “as was His custom.” (Luke 4:16) Paul did exactly the same thing, “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures…” (Acts 17:2) Paul told the Ephesian elders, “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the Kingdom will ever see me again.” (Acts 20:25) Paul preached the Kingdom with his disciples - just like Jesus.
Imitating Jesus means imitating whatever we see in disciples’ hearts and lives that advances the Kingdom and rings out the message. We cannot make people into something we are not, or something we minimize, or something we marginalize or make excuses about. Though our commitment to Christ is above any one person, Amy (my wife) and I have set our minds to imitate all we can of what is Christ-like in Kip and Elena’s hearts as well as the lives of the disciples who lead alongside them, the Johnsons, Bertalots and Untalans. We believe this is one reason we have seen the “good news of the Kingdom” reach more people than in any other ministry we have ever served.
Imitation is commanded in several Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17; Philippians 4:9; Hebrews 6:12; Hebrews 13:7. Not to imitate the faith of strong Christians is not to obey God’s Word. Consider 1 Corinthians 4:15-17:
“…I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.”
In this passage, Paul called the Corinthians to imitate him through Timothy. If they followed his direction, this would unite the hurting, divided and confused disciples in the Corinthian Church. Equally important was Paul’s calling “every church everywhere” to imitate him, because this gave a path for unity for all the churches.
Eugene has a population of 350,000 and is located about 100 miles south of Portland. Yet the disciples in Eugene feel privileged to have an extremely warm and close relationship with the Portland Church. It is common for us to have fellowship with Portland disciples and to see “the power, the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction” at work in their lives. With the arrival of the McKeans in mid-2003, the refreshment from repentance in Portland has been amazing - the likes of which Amy and I have never seen before! We were among the leadership of Portland in 2002-2004 and saw first-hand the hard work of Kip and Elena born of deep convictions, unconditional love and radical faith - it completely turned the church around. Despite Amy’s and my failures, this example inspired us to go back into the ministry and plant the Eugene Church in January of 2004.
I am so encouraged by the brothers and sisters in Eugene and their hearts to imitate what is Christ-like in Amy and I and one another. We love to have people in our home and feed them physical food and then spiritual food. The disciples here also love to do the same, and it’s not just the marrieds ministry having “dinners” and Bible studies with people. The single brothers often fire up their grill and invite a ton of people over and then encourage them to come to church to feed them spiritually. So many who have been baptized in Eugene first experienced the love of the disciples at one of these dinners. Imitation is one of the keys to the multiplication of disciples.
Not only should we imitate Christ in fellow disciples, but each disciple’s life must be worthy of imitation. We all must make it a point to set an example “in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12) If everyone imitated your speech, life, love, faith and purity - would the Kingdom forcefully advance? Would disciples be made and baptized? Would your church be unified with its leadership? God has done nothing but bless the Eugene Church because we have imitated the faith we see moving the Kingdom in Portland. In the last 3 years, the church in Eugene has grown from a small mission team to now approaching 60 baptized disciples - to God be the glory! Imitation is essential for the message of the Kingdom to ring out from our lives and churches. Pray for us to be bold in preaching Christ in the great city of Eugene.
Jeremy Ciaramella
Evangelist
Eugene International Church of Christ
