Today’s meditation builds on yesterday’s both in its subject matter and in the passage, Philippians 3:17, “Brothers, join in imitation me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”IN yesterday’s passage we saw how Paul called us to imitate Christ. Today he tells us to imitate himself and others (like Timothy and Epaphroditus in 2:19-30) who prove themselves to be good examples. Paul wanted these Philippian believers to have good models that they could imitate which is probably why he spends so much time talking about Timothy and Epaphroditus in chapter 2. Why?
Because all of us instinctly imitate someone, and as Christians we must be very intentional about who we will imitate or we will drift towards poor models. So if imitating Christ seems to these believers as too impossible Paul gives some more “attainable” models. This should be very encouraging and very challenging. The encouragement we should have is knowing that God does not leave us alone to just figure out how to live this Christian life. He gives us good models to help us along the way. The challenge we should hear is that God wants to use us as those models. In other words there are people all around us who are looking to us to see what it means to be a Christian. Based on your life alone, how do you think these people would define Christianity?
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