Friday

Psalm 27

Genesis 14:17-24

Philippians 3:17-20

“Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.” – Wikipedia.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. As a parent I watch in amazement and pride as my two year old rapidly absorbs motor and language skills mostly by imitating the people she meets and interacts with. Of course, at present, I have considerable control over what influences my daughter, but as she grows older the leverage I can apply to influence in her decisions fades.

Paul hoped that his “children” at the church in Philippi would join him in imitating Christ. He warns them of earthly temptations and reminds them of their citizenship in heaven, a starkly contrasting their Roman citizenship. Paul also connects to the deep sense of expectancy felt by the church in its infancy and leverages a belief that Christ would come again in the immediate future to give his instructions and warnings a pressing urgency.

In the two millennia since Paul wrote to the church at Philippi Christianity has lost the sense of expectancy present his original audience. “In our day, belief in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ has faded into a remote and sometimes irrelevant doctrine into many large segments of the Christian church; and it is entirely possible that our present lack of courage and lack of joy flow from this attitude.”¹

But the leverage that Paul applies to influence the Philippians to imitate Christ applies today to the church in Rochester, to you, to me, to my daughter, to all who through baptism Christ has joined to his death and resurrection. No one can know when the trumpet will sound, the eye will twinkle or the thief will come in the night. Our joy and courage to imitate Christ should not originate from banal flattery but heightened anticipation of his coming again to reign in glory. JB

¹James Montgomery Boice, Philippians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1971), p.247