Day 4216 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

2 Corinthians 9:9 ESV

Reflections

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery unto those who are being imitated as it shows forth a willingness found within another to replicate, as best they can, something that said other has seen or heard or elsewise learned in regard to something they who are being imitated has done or become. It’s something of a round of applause offered via word or deed as is said or done because someone saw or heard someone else say or do something that they thought was good, right, true, worthy then of being reproduced.

It’s an agreement unto the worth, the beauty, the simplicity, success or necessity of something that someone has already said or done.

But unto those who see such things that they agree to try to redo, imitation has to be the easiest of all things to do. For all it requires is but a bit of study as to what’s been done, how it was done, how we might then redo, resay whatever was said or has been done so that we too can do what we feel is worth being done again. Imitation is an utter simplicity as it exists as but a mimicry of something already complete, asking us then never to be the ones who endure the process of at first being the first to figure it out.

And it oftentimes brings with it a decidedly reduced risk of failure too, which, unto a people of both vanity and pride, that always comes in handy as, well, we just don’t like looking like we don’t know what we’re doing.

Thus should we endeavor to do or say only that already said or done by another, something replicated upon the grounds of our, and perhaps then others too, thinking it good enough to not only be worth redoing but our doing precisely that, then we too shall show forth that same good that we’ve found within the footsteps we’ve determined merely to follow.

Yes, imitation is simply the act of following what is a path that’s already been both paved and even proven able to arrive us safely, successfully unto the same outcome as they who we decide to imitate. Or at least an outcome close enough that any subtle differences or diversions won’t probably prove to matter all that much seeing as how we’re a people who look pretty much only unto the finished works rather than enduring the process of following along as said works are undertaken.

In other words we’re far more likely to go to a museum to look at a famous painting than we are to spend hours sitting with a painter who is painting something that no museum has yet to determine is worth being displayed.

Yeah, basically we like the display as we’ve so come to live this life through our eyes that we pretty much live for and toward only what we can see.

And, at least in regard to our faith, this can be a good thing. Not necessarily always an easy thing. Definitely not always a thing widely understood. Certainly not something everyone around us will agree is good, worthy then of being repeated or followed or studied or elsewise upheld. In fact, history’s proven time and again that the faith of a Christian leans sometimes toward the fate of Christ. Indeed, there’ve been many here who’ve met some rather gruesome ends thanks to their having given their lives to following Him whom they saw something in that they just couldn’t turn away from.

And while the world has calmed in certain ways and to a slightly noticeable degree, the sad reality is that this message we’re still here to share is one that the vast majority of people just don’t want to hear. Now we’re not likely to be invited to imitate His having been crucified as, well, that’s thankfully something that it seems most people find entirely too barbaric to repeat. But still, just because literal crosses may not be in our future, that definitely doesn’t mean that other forms of punishment or persecution aren’t.

In fact Jesus told us plainly that in this world we would have trouble but that to hold fast unto Him through our faith in Him whenever we do because He came to overcome the world. And He also told us that those who endure to the end would be those saved.

I think the problem usually comes in that whole ‘endure’ part as, well, endurance of anything isn’t really something any of us are eager to replicate!

No, we’re instead of people of, again, finished works. This is why, even if only secretly and way deep down in those places we would never confess before our bosses at work or a teacher at school, I think we actually kind of appreciate a good deadline. I think we appreciate a due date. I think we kind of enjoy the reliability of such things as finish lines because we know that once we’ve reached them, once we’ve turned our homework in, once we’ve finished that task that our bosses have given us, we can move on. We’ll be then freed from the burden of whatever work has been by then completed.

Yes, we love things that can be completed as we can point to them and say, “Hey, look what I did!”

But the issue is that, obvious pride such as that aside, we’re here living in accordance to a faith that calls us all to point to the cross and say, “Hey, look what He did!”

And, well, that’s kind of something we can never complete.

Indeed, we can’t actually finish this work that He’s given us to do. And why is that? Because, well, how can we actually go into all the world preaching the Gospel? The world is a massive place and it’s filled with even groups of people that are so remote in terms of both location and way of life that even getting to them would prove entirely too expensive, dangerous and perhaps literally impossible due to such things as language barriers and cultural traditions that have inspired plenty to continue killing Christians as, well, they just don’t invite anyone to wherever they are.

Even more personally, how can we honestly ever consider that we could ever finish the work that is our own repentance? Speaking personally, I find there’s something new literally every single day that I do or say or think that has no reason to be said or done or thought. I’m at this point pretty certain that God’s pretty tired of hearing me say I’m sorry!

But I so often am because, well, as a person I’m a pretty sorry example of what both a human should be, what a son should be, what a brother should be, what a neighbor should be, what a Christian should be.

Truly, I find daily that I fall short of being who I ought to be, even who I want to be in at least dozens if not hundreds of ways.

Leaving me with an endless list of things to work on doing better at, endless because I again only seem really good at proving able to add to it.

And so it’s really all but impossible for our to ever imagine finishing this work that He’s called us toward while we’re here. Thankfully He’s already finished said work upon our place upon our cross and simply asks that we take up our own little versions as are carried in a willingness to endure such things as the turning of the other cheek and the selling of whatever we have and the giving unto the poor and the courageous standing upon the Word of God unto which we testify unto whomever may ask for the reason we have for the hope they see we do.

Again, not that any of those things are easy to do but He wouldn’t have referred to such humble undertakings as the taking up of a cross if they were supposed to be easy.

They’re not.

In all actuality they’re all things that He calls us to do so that we too can both experience an ever-growing share of what it was like for Him to have humbled Himself unto the point of not merely leaving Heaven behind but doing so unto the taking of a literal cross in this life but also of the grace and mercy and kindness and generosity that He showed unto all those He encountered along the way to that grave.

Yes, everything He calls us to do is given us to so that we can both see and feel and, in the both, perhaps even show what the love of Christ is truly like.

Indeed, we are here to be His hands and feet doing the good works for which He created in advance for us to do and thus created us to do.

Thus we’re here to be imitators of Christ, doing as much of the good, sharing as much of the love, reflecting as much of the light as we possibly might. For after all, the word ‘Christian’ supposedly gets its meaning from an apparent Greek word, ‘christianos’, which, when translated, apparently means “little Christ”. And while many have taken issue with that as, no, we’re not technically of the true ability, authority to become like Christ as we all still get entirely too much entirely too wrong, the idea still has some weight to it.

Because, well, we are supposed to be followers of Christ who thus, as we grow in Him and He in us, begin to live our lives seeking increasingly to do those things which we hope and pray may bring Him glory and honor and praise. We slowly learn to continually long for ways within which to show forth our faith, to share His truth, to inspire or encourage others to too seek Him as we do.

That’s kind of the whole idea of our being referred to cities on hills.

It’s to stand apart from the crowd, or as the Scripture puts is obviously better and in every way more powerful, to “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:12

And that because, well, He’s going to be visiting us all one more time and that probably way sooner than anyone may expect!

Which is pretty much what continues to light the proverbial fire under some of us to continue doing such works as this that I attempt, often tragically failed and utterly disappointingly so. It’s because, as Peter asks Jesus in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Indeed, what else are we to do with this hope we have and the knowledge by which we have it? Even the Bible tells us that whomever is given a warning to pass along unto others and doesn’t do so shall be held accountable for their blood when they’re found to have not heeded the warning that we didn’t give them that He’d given us to give them.

And, well, that Christ is coming back soon to judge us all and send most to eternal condemnation sounds like a pretty serious warning that we all ought to then be trying however we can to warn others of.

And that something even kindly done in our doing as Jesus did.

This is where the simplicity of imitation comes in.

It’s kind of something summed up pretty well in those little fabric bracelets that people used to wear back in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Indeed, what would Jesus do?

Thankfully the Bible tells us what Jesus did. And, well, all of it basically summed up in what He even so kindly helps boil down to being the two most important Commandments: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:37-39

Really takes pretty much all the guess work out of it, doesn’t it? And, to make matters even easier to understand, He literally did exactly that the entire time that He was here. He loved those He came into contact with via the mercy seen inside such things as healing the blind and feeding the hungry and that all done unto the glory of the Father who had sent Him to do such things so as to show everyone with ears to hear and eyes to see that something new had begun.

That Heaven had come near. That salvation had arrived. That forgiveness of sins was the message of the Son, a message completed as He hung upon a sinner’s cross and testified that, “It is finished”.

Yes, the work He came to undertake, the saving of sinner’s from their sins and the giving unto them the hope of eternal life because of it, it’s done.

All that’s left is for our to both work out our salvation with fear and trembling and to go into all the world and share the Good News with whomever we might happen to meet along the way to wherever the rest of this wild ride goes.

It’s all utterly simple.

Just do as Jesus did, obviously the little part of which we’ve the actual ability and authority to do. Because, after all, we can’t be the ones who actually save others as our name isn’t the only One under Heaven given unto man by which we must all be saved. We’re not literally staring down the barrel of our being crucified for the remission of sin.

No, we’re just the ones who are here to go and tell all the other beggars where it is that we finally found some bread.

And we do this through doing what Jesus did. As in giving unto the poor. Feeding those who are hungry. Clothing those who are cold. Offering shelter to those without one elsewise, elsewhere. Sharing our hope with those who may have none. Sharing our faith with those who may feel lost and alone. Standing boldly upon our many convictions and speaking honestly about our many transgressions so as to help those who are still living in sin hopefully come to see that they too can be set free from their lives so filled with shame and regret.

We are here to be but imitators of the goodness, the kindness, the love, mercy, compassion, honesty, generosity that we see and hear in the words and deeds of Jesus.

All done, should we so agree, in what will then come to be a life that does grow closer to actually possibly honoring the Father as we come to increase in our delight to do all we do unto His glory alone and that because we agree to do what He’s called us to which is to love Him (as is accomplished in our acting justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with Him) and to love others (as is accomplished in providing for them whatever they may need to know either about Him and/or from Him).

Again, it’s all utterly simple as all it asks is that we go and do as much as we can of all that Jesus did.

We are called to follow in His footsteps along what is thus a path He’s already paved which does indeed show us continuously what is good.

Yes, He has shown us what is good and all that He asks is that we come and follow Him as He intends to make us fishers of men.

Friends, we’ve proven of an amazing ability to overcomplicate basically everything in and of and even about this life. And we’ve sadly done so in regard to our faith as well. We’ve gotten lost inside so many rules and ideals that we’ve endeavored to write trying to help us to ensure that we get this right. And maybe some of them do. But in the end it’s not going to prove to matter all that much the number of rules we followed nor the amount of times we managed to not get confused in trying.

What’s going to matter is whether or not we knew Christ as our Lord and Savior, something that will be either proven or disproven via our actions undertaken in this life.

Are we living lives that show we know Christ? Do our words, our works testify that we’re growing in Him and thus He in us? Or, as is sadly far more common the case, are we still doing and saying entirely too many things that look and sound far closer to the world in which we remain for what seems to be yet another day?

The Bible tells us that He will give unto us whatever it may be that we’ll by Judgement Day deserve.

What outcome are we living to earn?

Not that salvation nor then the promise of Heaven is ours to earn. It’s not. My point is that our works and our words should show and say that we are growing in the Way inside what are then lives that are changing, turning to become more and more like Him all the time.

Are they?

When we get to Heaven will God see more of the world in us or more of the Son which came and died to the same so as to overcome the same?

What do those around us see whenever they look at us or listen to us? Imitations of the world around us? Replications of the world around us? Mimics of the world around us?

Or, as with Jesus, do they see and hear something different in us, about us?

My point is that He came to make all things new and so if there remains in us anything of the old us then we’ve still plenty of work to do because His making all things new demanded He literally die to the old way of life. And He then called us to do the same.

All so that our words, our works, our every breath would come to become so different than everything we said and did and were before that the world sees in us a small, imperfect, weak and often humiliating attempt to shine His light and be His followers.

We will never prove able to get this perfect.

But that was never the point.

No, the point was for our to be but humble reflections of the One who did.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold