Imitate to Learn and Grow in Christ

(1 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

Most people don’t like imitations. They want the real thing. An imitation is seen as being less than the original, a fake, or a pretender.

But imitating can also be a good thing. It can be part of a process that that leads to better things.

In these scriptures today we see that it is even recommended. We need to imitate to learn and grow in Christ.

An example of imitating to learn

When it comes to being able to imitate to learn and grow, one of the best examples I can recall in modern history is that of Japan.

The Japanese economy was destroyed after the second world war. They basically had nothing left and had to rebuild from scratch.

When the Japanese industries first began, they imitated the systems and processes of the Western World with the help of many engineers and experts, especially from the USA.

Japan rebuilt using quality assurance as the benchmark, led by the likes of W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Phillip Crosby, amongst others. These men taught the Japanese the principles of Quality Manufacturing.

But it didn’t happen overnight. The Japanese were imitating western manufacturing and production processes, and it took time for them to improve.

I recall when I was young in the 1950’s and 1960’s, that when we saw the words “Made in Japan,” it usually meant “Junk.” The quality of the output from their early manufacturing was terrible. Products were poor, unreliable, easily broken, and so on.

But they were learning. The Japanese understood the purpose of imitating to learn.

And they did it well. By the end of the 1960’s, the quality had improved dramatically and in the 1970’s and 1980’s they overtook the western world to become the benchmarks for quality. They went from imitators to leaders and business people from the western world started to look to Japan to learn from them.

This was the power of imitating to learn and grow at work. And no-one today would look at products coming out of Japan and immediately think “Junk.” Rather, they would see Japanese made products as the epitome of quality in most cases.

Imitate to learn and grow in Christ

And that brings us to what the scripture is talking about today. Just as the Japanese imitated the West to learn, we need to imitate to learn and grow in Christ.

Before going any further, let’s take a look at what these scriptures say.

6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedo’nia and in Acha’ia. (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

To imitate means you must first have something to imitate. There needs to be a benchmark against which you can measure to see how you are doing.

When we imitate to learn and grow in Christ, we are using the examples of the life of the Lord and His early disciples as our benchmark. Christ is the standard and the one whom we are to imitate.

One of the purposes of the coming of Jesus Christ was indeed to give us an example to follow. The way that He conducted His life while here on earth was to give us the example to imitate to learn and grow in Christ.

This is what Paul was telling the Thessalonians church also.

They received the word of the Lord through the efforts of Paul and others. And they took those words and the examples of how Jesus and the apostles led their lives to heart.

Paul spoke to them of the need to imitate to learn and grow in Christ.

Why imitate to learn and grow in Christ?

So we should consider why we might need to imitate to learn and grow in Christ.

There is an old saying that says, “Those who cannot do copy (or imitate).”

Now, while some may imitate because they want to try and bask in the glory of the originals, others imitate to learn.

By imitating something that is good or better than you are, you can learn the practises and processes that will lead to being better.

In the early stages the imitation process may seem fake and feel wrong. But over time as you train your body or mind, you pick up the things that lead to improvement.

Basically, imitating produces new and better habits that serve you better.

Take for example something the early disciples did that may have been imitated by the new converts. Perhaps it may have been prayer, as an example.

Jesus prayed frequently and often. The disciples saw this and asked the Lord to teach them how to pray. Their first efforts may have been awkward and felt uncomfortable, but as they continued to imitate the way the Lord prayed and taught them, it became a habit. Over time, praying would have become a natural part of their life and their walk with Christ.

The early disciples of the Lord then passed on this process to those they converted, who imitated the early disciples and so learned. And this was passed down from one generation of Christians to the next, right down to today.

But it all began with the need to imitate to learn and grow in Christ. This is how we learn. And this is how we grow. The process and practise of imitation is not for the purposes of “faking it.” It is to learn and understand the ways of the Lord and to build us up in His ways.

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