Being like God

When an actor or actress must play the part of a person who is or was real, they study that person with great diligence. They learn to imitate their walk, gestures, manners and speech, but to do this, they must spend hours, days, weeks in that person’s life or watching films of them. They need to know everything they can so their portrayal is believable.

In the New Testament, the disciples began the task of sharing the Gospel with their world. Peter and John healed a man and gained an audience. Acts 4:8 says that Peter spoke to them, filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 13 says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”

In this case, the giveaway was their boldness, and Peter’s eloquence in the face of his lack of education. How could a fisherman speak with such power and godly authority? They realized these men had spent time with Jesus. This was the only explanation for their behavior.

My verses today are not about acting a part, but they are about studying my subject and being like Him. Peter and John acted like Jesus because they had been with Him. They knew His life inside out, and even though they often misunderstood Him and were often confused when Jesus was still on earth, their exposure, and the power of the Holy Spirit, was enough to make them believable.

God wants me to show the world what He is like, and to do that, I need to do the same. As today’s verses say, I need to imitate God.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

The challenge is followed by description, and since I cannot see God, my example is the life of Christ. He physically demonstrated that God is love and that love involves self-sacrifice. This is not glamorous, far from it. It could be up front and noticeable, but it could also mean dropping what I am doing to hold a ladder for my husband, or taking time out to call a grandchild, or giving up my plans to share a cup of tea with a neighbor. It could also go as far as dying for someone, because Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

John understood His words. He later wrote, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

Imitating God is not glamorous nor is it grandiose. To show them how to love one another, Jesus took off His outer garments, wrapped Himself in a towel, and washed the dirty feet of His disciples.

Anyone who gets the notion that they are God, from the crazies depicted in the media to the New Age folks who throw their arms in the air and say they are God, thinks being God means power over everyone else and freedom to do whatever they wish. Their error is that they have not studied the One who came to show us what God is like, nor have they realized to be like Him they must be filled with the Holy Spirit. They also do not realize that if they could actually pull it off, it might cost them their lives.