Verse of the Day 9/17

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  English Standard Version (ESV)

One thing that you come to realize as you go through life is that human beings are imitators.  It starts at an early age as children begin to imitate their parents in actions, expressions and the way they talk.  It continues through life as they imitate those that they admire or desire to be like.

As a child, I dreamed of being a professional baseball player.  All of the neighborhood kids would play baseball or whiffle ball and we tried to imitate our favorite baseball players.  I remember imitating how Ernie Banks used to hold the bat or how Billy Williams went through warm ups to his at bats.  We did that out of admiration but also in the hopes that we would learn to hit like they would.

In today's verse Paul sees that image of a child imitating their parents and transfers that to God.  We should desire to be like those we adore and as children first and foremost that is our parents.  The heading to the passage in the ESV is "Walk in Love".  Our Christian life, our journey through life, our pilgrimage is a walk and in it we are to be imitators of God and the quality that we are to see most in Jesus and to imitate in our lives is to love.

If we walk in love, following Him, we will become imitators of God.  I read in Jeremiah 18 this morning about the clay in the potter's hands.  If we will follow He will mold.  Even if we've fallen away at some point He has the power to remake us into what He wants us to be.  Romans 8 tells us not to be conformed to be molded by the secular world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  That renewing is that imitating, that molding that takes place in following Jesus in our walk through life.

 

Blessings,

 Mike

Follow the verse of the day at www.mikesvotd.blogspot.com

Ephesians 5:1-2The Message (MSG)

Wake Up from Your Sleep

5 ^1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.