On a planet that has roughly 7.7 billion people living today, there are many entirely focused on the art of imitation. They are looking to literally copy anyone whom they consider attractive, wealthy, cutting edge, or just someone that has what they lack. They believe that if they can become what they see, then they have a good chance of achieving the same success. And if not actually success, then they will at the very least look the part.
There was a man who started his design business with just the simple idea of making ties. Fifty years out and he has created a global billion dollar business that makes clothing which has a cult following. The idea is simple. You may not have the lifestyle that goes along with what you wear, but you can look like you do. The objective is to feel so good when you wear the clothes that you actually believe that you are everything that they declare you are, attractive, wealthy, and envied. In other words, letting the clothes create this image that others will want to emulate, even if it is not true. It actually boils down to being a poser, but a very fashionable one to be sure.
Two thousand years ago Jesus walked the earth as a man. He was fully God and fully man, and yet an Old Testament prophet in 8th-century BC stated that we would not be drawn to Him. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from, He was despised, and we didn’t value Him.”
Clearly, not someone that you would seek to follow, yet it is exactly what happened while He walked the earth, and is still happening today. What the disciples saw 2000 years ago in Jesus we get to see and experience in each other. It is because we carry the Holy Spirit that people will be drawn to us, as they were drawn to Jesus, or they will reject us, as they rejected Him.
We put on Christ when we walk in obedience to God’s Word. In doing this we are walking as He walks, speaking as He speaks, and loving as He loves. Just as Jesus revealed His heart to those who had eyes to see, we do the same. We imitate Jesus to a world that is in crisis as stated in 1 John 4:17, “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
Ephesians 5:1-2 CSB Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.