MIMICS MOVING IN THE SPIRIT

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly beloved children

and live a life of love,

Just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us …

Ephesians 5:1-2

You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word …

… the mature … by constant use

have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:12-14

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just

and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

… My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

But

if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense

– Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

1 John 1:9-2:1

Life is made up of making one choice after another, “What will I do now?” Willing to do something comes before doing something. Humans have “free will” and can act according to what they freely choose to do. Since humans are created by God, in God’s image, we would be wise to act according to the will of our Creator. This is what it means to be imitators of God – continually choosing to act like people created in God’s image, always willing to do God’s will.

As we grow and mature, the choices we make form who we become. “Mimics” and “imitators” come from the same Greek word in the Bible. They both mean “to act just like someone else.” The important thing to remember is that human beings are created by God with free choice – they choose how to act. This means that acting like someone else requires making choices like that other person makes. God acted first in creating us to be good, then recreating us through the cross of Christ. All that God does is good. Acting like God means to do good by grace.

How then do we know God’s will? How do we know what is good? God shows us His will by giving us Himself in His Word, written in Scripture and revealed in Jesus Christ. We read in scripture that if we choose to follow Jesus, we are doing God’s will. Jesus showed us that being good means obeying God. Jesus is the Son of God who always obeyed God the Father. He did this by the power of the Holy Spirit. This same power is ours so that we too can become imitators of God.