A Life Worth Following (1 Cor 11:1)
1 Cor 4:16 This is a great statement, but do we really want to follow just a man, even if it is Paul?
1 Cor 11:1 As we think about this statement from Paul it seems to spark a lot more questions.
- First, what makes Paul’s life compelling and worth following?
- Second: Is my life a compelling witness to Christ that others would want to follow?
Context: Paul is addressing the entire Corinthian Church. He is not writing to an individual believer.
Three key issues here in this verse:
First, the quality of Paul’s life, the worthiness to be followed.
Second, there is a deliberate invitation. “Follow me”
Third, it was Christ that he was following and inviting others to follow. Jesus first
Let’s start with the first one: The quality of Paul’s life, the worthiness to be followed.
- 1 Thes 2:6 He starts by saying that he was not looking for praise or glory, there was a humility to his life.
- Humility is worth following.
- Verse 7 here says He treated them as gentle as a mother.
- He lived a holy and blameless life before them and God. That’s worth following.
- He also dealt with them as a father would, encouraging and comforting.
- Most importantly Paul is urging them to live lives worthy of God.
- And at the same time, there is nothing flashy here for Paul.
- This is a life worth following
- Cor 11:23 Any one of these hardships and most people are done. “Get me back to my comfortable place”
- But despite this Paul continues to go on and preach the Gospel.
- At the end of that list of hardships he says he is still concerned with the wellbeing of all the churches.
- He has not become focused on his own struggles and hardship. This is a life worth following.
- Eph 6:19 He is in prison, bound by chains, and yet his prayer request is that he will still fearlessly preach the Gospel. What got him in prison? Preaching the Gospel!!
- 2 Cor 12:7 He has seen such incredible revelations of glory from the Lord he has been given a thorn in the flesh.
- Amid a life of weakness and frailty, that’s a life worth following.
- 1 Cor 4:12-13 Paul says they have become the scum of earth, the refuse of the world.
- But even when Paul was mistreated and slandered, he responded with kindness and blessings
- Amid rejection and slander, this is a life worth following.
Second, the second key issue here. There is an invitation
- Cor 11:1 Paul is actively inviting people to follow him. “Follow me!”
- Now the “follow me” in the English sounds like a verb.
- But in the Greek, it’s a noun. “an imitation.”
- “Become an imitation of me”
- The verb to become is in the Greek Present Tense.
- It basically represents an activity as in process.”
- So, this act of becoming like Paul or Christ is an ongoing process.
- The verb “to become” is also a command.
- So, A good way to understand this verse could be: “Continually be in the process of imitating me as I imitate Christ.”
Now the next this part of this: Jesus First: It is Jesus that we are following and becoming more like.
- 2 Cor 1:8-9 In the midst of these incredibly hard times, Paul sees this happening so that he might grow in his ability to trust and rely on God. On Jesus who raises the dead.
- This is total dependence on God. Not relying on his ability to get out of a jam.
- This is a life worth following.