This part of the passage, Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me, brought to mind another similar verse I have been wrestling with lately:
1Cor. 4:16, "I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me." NASB
"The confidence of Paul, in and through Christ, to be able to exhort those (not just advise or suggest) he's teaching to imitate him is really quite staggering. It's pretty simple and non-threatening to ask someone to imitate oneself relating to a profession, i.e. a carpenter or a pitching coach etc. But as MacArthur points out in his commentary on this verse, being a "spiritual father" like Paul was is entirely different. How are our lives at home? "Often the hardest place to discipline is in the home. When we disciple those outside our families, they often see us only in ideal situations, where it is easy to act spiritual and mature. But our children see us in all moods, in all attitudes and actions…" You get the picture. MacArthur goes on to say, "Having godly children is required of an elder (1Tim. 3:4-5) in part, at least, because that is good evidence that he himself is godly."
What Paul is teaching is a lifestyle not an occupation or vocation. A greater emphasis of defining an elder should include an intentional effort to be one worthy of imitation which I think is missing from all the research I have done. Yikes, when one looks at it that way it really magnifies the weight and responsibility of serving the church as elder. I realize this concept could be defined as, "role model", "mentor", even "father" when looked at in a family as MacArthur points out, so being worthy of imitating is arguably implied to be an elder, but I think it really needs to be emphasized loud and clear."
For today's verse I'd like to go to Psalm 119, one of my favorite chapters which focuses on the Word of God and how important the Word is for us if we desire to be imitators of God. The passage starts out with a question with the short answer.
9 How can a young person stay pure?
By obeying your word.
Read the passage below for a longer explanation capped by today's verses. If we are to be imitators we need to know His Word and obey it, "delight in it, put it into practice and not forget it.
Psalm 119:15-16 (New International Version) I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
I'll close with this quotation from C.S. Lewis which challenges us not just to dabble in God's Word, but to lauch out into it, to explore it's depths. I think it captures the heart of the psalmist and of Paul. Does it convict or capture yours? What are you holding onto that is holding you back?
"This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal." C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Blessings,
Mike
mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Psalm 119:9 -16 How can a young person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I'm single-minded in pursuit of you;
don't let me miss the road signs you've posted.
I've banked your promises in the vault of my heart
so I won't sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God;
train me in your ways of wise living.
I'll transfer to my lips
all the counsel that comes from your mouth;
I delight far more in what you tell me about living
than in gathering a pile of riches.
I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you,
I attentively watch how you've done it.
I relish everything you've told me of life,
I won't forget a word of it. - The Message
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