Imitate Me As I Imitate Christ

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. This is a strong statement made by the Apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 11:1. Paul understood what Jesus meant by the command to go and make disciples.

"The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master (Lu. 6:40 KJV)."

A disciple is a student. The word master here literally means an instructor, or teacher. We tend to interpret this verse as meaning the student will never be superior to the teacher. If we take the rendering of this verse in the Amplified Bible we find, "A pupil is not superior to his teacher."

Right there it is! This is what it says, the teacher is superior to the student! We must be willing to throw away the remainder of this verse to get this interpretation. Let's finish this verse from the Amplified Bible.

"But." But is a conjunction. But indicates more is coming. "But everyone [when he is] completely trained (readjusted, restored, set to rights, and perfected) will be like his teacher." I like all the different adjectives describing completely trained.

What Jesus is telling us in Luke 6:40 is when the teacher has correctly taught the pupil, the pupil will be exactly like the teacher. This is what the Apostle Paul understood when he wrote the words of 1Corinthians 11:1, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (NKJV)."

This places a tremendous responsibility on those who preach and teach Christ. If you have taught and preached correctly, your students, your disciples, will be exact replicas of you as you replicate Christ. Very, very interesting. God bless...