Paul seems to indicate that it is a CRITICAL ingredient in our quest to navigate a victorious Christian lifestyle. In fact in this letter, which is written to Christians who are really struggling to figure out how they ought to act after they have become born-again, he points to himself twice as an example to imitate.

Now I have heard an enormous amount of teaching that tells people NOT to look at other people as their example, or they will end up being disappointed and perhaps even offended. This teaching teaches people that they should only look to Jesus as their example because other people are imperfect.

Now in a way, this teaching is true. The only perfect person is Jesus and everyone is going to be imperfect and navigating through life just like we are. But if we hold strictly to this standard we will become unbalanced and make a lot of unnecessary mistakes.

The problem with ONLY looking to Jesus as our example is that we have an extreme learning curve to begin with. There is so much we DON’T know when we begin our Christian lives that it is simply impossible to learn it all instantaneously from our personal study of the Scriptures.

Now is it possible to get everything you need directly from Jesus? Absolutely it is. But in the real world, this is a slow and steady process of a lifetime of Bible study. And no new convert to Christianity is going to instantaneously lose all the baggage that they had before they met Jesus.

When we first meet Jesus, our spirit is instantaneously transformed and made perfect. But our soul (the mind, will, and emotions) is not.

And so if we have no mature Christians in our lives to look up to that we can imitate, the process of renewing our minds so that we can outwardly transform into an imitator of Jesus is dramatically slowed down. In fact, it may end up being completely stunted.

Paul was not being audacious or prideful when he told the Corinthian Christians to imitate him. Rather, he was directing them to follow his example so that they could mature more quickly.

Paul didn’t claim to be as perfect as Christ. But he did claim a level of maturity that was profitable to imitate.

There is a modern trend in society that has pushed people into electronic formats of interaction while devaluing actual physical interaction. And this trend has bled into most churches.

People don’t actually do life together anymore. Young people are not encouraged to seek out older, more mature people to use as examples. Instead, they are taught to find out their answers to life’s questions in an online social media platform.

And what has been the result of this trend?

If you don’t cringe when you see how dysfunctional our young people are, then you probably have buried your head in the sand.

Developing normally into a mature adult without mentors is challenging and rarely attained successfully.

And within the church. developing normally into a healthy, mature Christian without mentors that can be imitated is just as challenging.

Without mentors, we end up making myriads of unnecessary mistakes in our lives.

But if we can learn from someone else’s example instead of having to learn through the school of hard knocks, is that not a superior method for maturing?

You ought to be looking for someone to connect with who is more mature than you that you can imitate in their victories.

And you ought to be willing to connect with someone who is less mature than you that you can be an example to.

This is how healthy churches develop. And life is much more fun this way.

If you aren’t well connected with other Christians, both more mature than you and less mature than you, your system is broken and your life is much less fulfilling than it could be.

And it isn’t just you who is being cheated.