Be Like Me

Be Like Me: The Invitation to Imitate That Changes Everything

There is a statement in the New Testament so bold, so audacious, that it stops most readers cold. The Apostle Paul, writing to a church he deeply loved, issued a challenge that cuts straight to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus: "Brethren, I urge you to become like me." Not like an angel. Not like some distant theological ideal. Like him. A man. A former persecutor of Christians. A recovering religious zealot who once thought he was doing God a favor by hunting down believers and dragging them to prison.

And yet, here he is. Inviting imitation.

Far from being arrogant, this invitation is one of the most generous and practical things Paul ever wrote. Because buried inside it is a roadmap -- a life principle for becoming the best version of who God created you to be.

How Saul Became Paul
To understand the invitation, you have to understand the man extending it.

Saul of Tarsus was, by every measurable standard, a religious overachiever. He was raised at the feet of Gamaliel, the premier Pharisee teacher of his generation. He had memorized the first five books of Scripture. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. His credentials were impeccable. His zeal was unmatched.

And then Jesus showed up on the road to Damascus and knocked him flat.

What followed was a true conversion -- not just a change of opinion or religious affiliation, but a complete transformation of identity. He was filled with the Spirit. He was baptized in water. And almost immediately, Acts 9:20 tells us, he began preaching Jesus as the Christ in the synagogues. The very Scriptures he had spent his life studying suddenly blazed with new meaning. The Messiah he had been persecuting was the one the prophets had been pointing to all along.

Here is what makes this remarkable: Saul had every reason to slip back into religious routine. He knew the system. He had lived it. The Judaizers troubling the Galatian church were his people. But he did not go back. He put on Christ, and he never took him off.

That is the foundation of the invitation.

A Chain of Imitation
Paul's challenge to "become like me" was not the end of the chain -- it was the middle of it. To the Corinthians, he made his secret plain: "Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ." And Christ himself, in the Gospel of John, explained his own method simply -- the Son does nothing on his own, only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does also.

Imitate God. Imitate Jesus. Imitate Paul. The chain runs all the way up to the throne of heaven, and it runs all the way down to you.

This is not a call to lose yourself. It is a call to find yourself -- in the pattern of someone greater.

What Imitation Actually Looks Like
So what does it mean in practice?

Imitate God by leading with love. Scripture is unambiguous: God is love. And love gives -- not when it is convenient, not when the conditions are right, but sacrificially, even when it costs everything. The passage in 1 Corinthians 13 lays out exactly what this looks like in daily life. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails. If you want to know how to act like the Father, start there.

Imitate Jesus by leading with grace before truth. John's Gospel describes Jesus as full of grace and truth -- in that order. Too many believers have reversed the sequence, demanding that people measure up to truth before they receive any grace. But that is not how Jesus operated. Consider the woman caught in adultery. He did not excuse what she was doing. He did not pretend the truth did not matter. But he met her first with grace, and then he spoke truth. Romans 2:4 reminds us that it is the goodness of God -- not his severity -- that leads people to repentance. If you have someone estranged from you because of the way they are living, consider this: extend love, provide grace, and do not let go of truth. All three together. In that order.

Imitate Paul by staying on mission. If Paul's life could be reduced to a single word, it would be zeal. He was beaten with rods, flogged five times, stoned and left for dead -- and every single time, he got back up and kept going. Not because he was superhuman, but because his conversion was real and his mission was clear. Galatians 4:18 captures it well: it is good to be zealous in a good thing always -- not just when someone is watching. The challenge is to be as committed to the mission in private as you are in public.

You Have Permission to Imitate
For some people, the idea of imitating God feels presumptuous. Imitate God? Surely that is overreaching. But the Scripture is clear: "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children." The image is of a small child at the foot of a parent, watching and doing exactly what they see. Children do not question whether they are qualified to imitate. They simply do what they see.

You have that same permission. You do not have to figure out a new approach to the Christian life. You do not have to innovate your way to spiritual maturity. You simply watch, and you do.

And here is the most liberating truth of all: what God ultimately looks at is not the quality of your faith or the perfection of your imitation. Think of the first Passover. The death angel did not evaluate the emotional intensity of the Israelites' belief. He simply looked for the blood on the doorpost. The covering was the qualifier.

Your life is covered by the blood of Christ. From that place of security, you are free to imitate -- freely, boldly, and without fear.

Be like Paul. Be like Jesus. Be like the Father. The invitation is open.