Be Imitators of God

(Ephesians 5:1)

This scripture instructs us in a process that is extremely powerful and something we should all learn to do. It says:

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” (Ephesians 5:1)

You may think there is something wrong with this logic. You may think, “Isn’t an imitation false or a fake?” Well, in some cases it may be, but there are other cases where it is not, and it is especially not the case with regard to this scripture.

Imitate to learn

When I was a child, a lot of the things we had were made in Japan.

Japan was just coming back to life after the devastation of the second world war where all of their manufacturing had been destroyed. They were in the process of rebuilding.

A number of American quality giants went to Japan to help them in their recovery, people like Joseph Juran, W. Edwards Deming and Phil Crosby to name just a few.

But when I was a child, the words “Made in Japan” meant junk.

Could anyone today say that “Made in Japan” means junk? Absolutely not!

For many years now the words “Made in Japan” has meant the best of quality and the highest standards of manufacturing. So much so that Japanese quality has become the benchmark globally and many organisations have gone to Japan to learn how to improve quality so they can improve their own products and processes.

How did the Japanese get so good?

In essence they began by imitating the production products and processes used in the west. They imitated to learn. The saw what was done and through the application of the techniques being taught by the quality gurus mentioned above, they learned and improved and surpassed those who they had initially imitated. No longer were they making junk, but they made better products than those they were copying.

Imitating to learn is one of the reasons why Paul in this verse from Ephesians 5:1 instructs us to “Imitate God.”

Who better can we possibly imitate to learn from than God Himself? There is no way that we will ever surpass God as the Japanese surpassed those they imitated, but we can learn to be like Him.

How do we imitate God?

We are told in Hebrews 1, verse 3 the following

“He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” Hebrews 1:3)

We have never seen God the Father, but this scripture says that Jesus bears the very stamp of God’s nature. He reflects the glory of God, and so in Jesus we can see who and what God the Father is like.

Some of the first disciples were confused about this too, until Jesus set them right.

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (John 14:7-10)

What Jesus told the disciples and also tells us here, is that He and the Father are one. Not that they are the same person, but that in all they do and all they think they are alike.

The Son will never do anything that the Father would not do and vice versa. They are the same in mind and action.

So if we are to be imitators of God it could be a problem when we have never seen God. But we have seen Jesus and we know how He thought and behaved. We know what His thought processes were like because it is written all over the Bible and we see examples of how He behaved in a multitude of situations.

So by becoming imitators of Christ Jesus, we also become imitators of God the Father because they think and behave the same.

Why Imitate God?

I mentioned above that we can imitate to learn. There are also other reasons why imitating God is beneficial.

Think about how we change habits, whether good or bad. According to social scientists and psychologists, a habit is formed when we do the same thing over and over for a period of time. Repeating a process or an action over time gradually embeds that process into our minds or actions, and it moves from our conscious mind to our unconscious minds.

Experts suggest it takes about a month or so to form a new habit and during that time we have to consciously think about what we are doing if we want to change our habits.

During that first month or so, what exactly is it that we are doing? Are we not mimicking and imitating the behaviours we want to create as a habit?

So if we want to be like God and Jesus Christ, then imitating how Jesus acted, reacted and behaved is the starting point. We may have to “pretend” for a while, but over time this imitation game becomes a reality in our heart and mind and it becomes a habit so that we begin to automatically do whatever it is we seek to do to be like Christ.

This form of imitation is in some ways the highest form of praise. We want to be like Christ and so we choose to act like Him in imitation, until the imitation becomes a reality.

God also gives us the Holy Spirit to do the work of transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ and God the Father. How much easier will it be for the Holy Spirit to do His job when we are imitating the ways of the Lord? The work of the Holy Spirit will be easier because rather than trying to wrench us out of our bad habits, He can simply strengthen and encourage our imitations so they become a part of who we are more quickly.

So do not think to imitate is to be a fake. And even if we do have to fake it for a while, there is a deeper purpose in imitating the ways of God and of Jesus Christ, because through imitation we can learn and we can change, and that is why we should be imitators of God.

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