I recall back in the early 1980’s when a singer named Madonna was becoming popular that she had a definite way of dressing and presenting herself. I also noticed that girls and young women everywhere seemed to dress in a similar fashion. Look back at the fashions among the young men of the 1950’s: leather jacket with the collar turned up, boot-cut jeans, and hair slicked back in a Pompadour. Young men everywhere dressed that way thanks to a young actor named James Dean. Indeed, we tend to want to imitate those we look up to.
Paul gave to the believers a bold challenge: As you have therefore received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him. We are to no longer walk in the futility of our old ways, but we are to walk in the fullness of Christ. To walk in Him means to take upon us the mind, heart, and attitudes of the Lord Jesus. It seems that I once read somewhere that imitation is the highest form of flattery. If we look up to someone, then it follows that we might try to be like that person. Remember that as believers we are called to take on Christ. We are challenged to have the mind of Christ, to walk in Him, to be like Him and to not just imitate, but to die – to self. Dietrich Bonheoffer said that when Christ calls a man that he bids him come and die. We die to self, to our old attitudes, thought processes, and the old way of doing things, and we arise to new life in Christ Jesus.
As the Bible says, if we have received Christ as Lord, keep on walking forward in Him - not in spiritual defeat, but in victory. We can claim that blessed victory in the Lord as we strive to be like Him and to let His light shine from us and to a lost and dying world.
Are you trying to be like someone? Hopefully, the one you are striving to imitate is Christ Jesus.
