"Be Imitators, not Imposters."

“And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” (1Thessalonians 1:6-7 ESV).

Today, we look at verses 6 and 7 of Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalonians. The King James translation says “And ye became followers of us, and of the lord,” which doesn’t have the same meaning as “imitators”. Now, in the original Greek, the word translated as "follower/imitators" is mime’tēs 3402, which is used six times in the New Testament and is consistently translated by both the ESV and KJV as "imitators/followers." Our English word “mimic” comes from this Greek word and of course means “one who imitates or emulates”. If you read the other passages in the New Testament, they seem to imply not just following but actually doing the same things or imitating the one being followed. It seems that being a follower isn’t quite the same thing as being an imitator. Properly, the word means “the positive imitation that arises by admiring the pattern set by someone worthy of emulation, i.e., a mentor setting a proper example.”

So, for our purposes, I think “imitator” is the best translation.  The first thing we should notice is that Paul says the believers in Thessalonica “became imitators” of Paul, Silas, Timothy, and the Lord. Remember, this letter was written several months after Paul preached the Gospel to them. So, these believers are not very “old” in the faith. There’s a lot they still don’t know, but one thing they do know is that they should imitate Paul, and the other leaders, and of course, our Lord. Their willingness to imitate the Lord is something that we all need to do. Some of us have been believers for decades, and others for months, but this is something that each and every one of us needs to do; we need to imitate who our Lord is. Now, how do we know the heart of our Lord? Read and study the Bible. Christians, we can’t possibly live our lives as imitators of our Savior if we don’t know His heart. The way we know God’s heart is to know His Word.

 One of the problems I believe we have in the Church today is that we have too many people being “impostors” rather than imitators. It seems to me that the church has a lot of impostors, people claiming to follow or imitate the Lord, but in reality, they are trying to convince others of their own self-righteousness by establishing a “works” salvation and sanctification system. Yes, we are to be imitators of our Lord and of the examples of Paul and the other

1^st Century church leaders, but we cannot try to “work” our way into God’s good graces. If we’ve accepted Christ as our Savior, then we are already in God’s good graces. Once that is settled, then we should try to live our lives to bring honor and glory to our risen Savior by being an “imitator” of Him and His heart.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"