Letters From Grandpa #566

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 566

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be about Ephesians 5:1 “Be imitators of God as dear children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1) Most of what we learn on earth we learn by imitation!

When you were born the first time the sperm of your father united with the egg of your mother and you became a living being. 23 chromosomes came from your father and 23 chromosomes came from your mother. These chromosome sets carried some 15,000 genes from each parent cell. Like letters of a divine alphabet these genes determined the unique characteristics of who you are. (The color of your eyes, your hair color, your facial features, the intricate composition of your body, and whether you were a boy or a girl, etc.) All of these were determined at the moment of your conception. Your physical “image” or family “DNA”, dates back to Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-49) Being born the first time gave you physical life! As a physical child you imitated your earthly father.

When you were born again you received spiritual life. Jesus gave you that spiritual life and that is why He is called the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Just as the first Adam began a physical race, the last Adam began a spiritual race. When you became a Christian you were “Born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and eternal word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23) Just as a butterfly is different from a caterpillar, in Christ we receive a new nature no longer loves to sin (1 John 3:9). In fact, being “born again” makes you a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Now you in the family of God and are to imitate your heavenly Father!

Since Jesus is “God manifest in the flesh” He sets for us an example (1 Timothy 3:16). His Spirit dwells within us and empowers us to live a life of love just as He did. The story of Jesus, repeated 4 times by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, contains approximately 44% of all the N.T. Scriptures. This is not an accident! If we are to “imitate” Christ we must know how He lived. If we are to have the “mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5), then we need to know how Christ thought! In fact, God has predestined us to be conformed to the “likeness” of His Son (Romans 8:29). The Greek word translated as “likeness” in this verse is “eikon” from which we get our English word “icon”. Christians should therefore be like a computer “icon” helping unsaved people to “Click on Jesus”. Remember that Paul said, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me”. (Galatians 2:20)

Timothy is a good example of imitating God. From the time that he was an infant his grandmother, Lois, and his mother Eunice, taught him the holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15). He was taught to be an “imitator” of God. Remember! Christians are cleansed “of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:1-3) After we are baptized we need to continue to learn about Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20) for He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21).

Since “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Cor. 15:33) we must all be careful who we associate with. We are to bring up our children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). That’s why godly fathers protect their children from imitating evil influences.

I was a certificated flight instructor for over 40 years. As a flight instructors I was taught these 4 principles to train pilots. (1) Lecture (2) Demonstrate (3) Practice (4) Review. Since one third of

aviation accidents involve stalls, lessons on stall recovery are very important. First you lecture. Then you climb to a safe altitude and demonstrate how to safely recover from a stall. The the student practices by imitating what you demonstrated. Finally, you review the lesson.

These same 4 principles can easily be applied to Christianity. Paul wrote: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1). First Paul lectured, then he demonstrated. Then his discipled practiced what they learned. Finally, Paul’s letters provided a review of their progress. Note that Paul’s students were only to imitate Paul to the extent that he imitated Christ. Our ultimate example is Jesus, not Paul. Paul himself was dogmatic that he followed Jesus and not men. He wrote “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10) Paul’s goal was not to imitate Peter, James or John, but to imitate Jesus! Our goal is therefore to “Fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2) God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the specific purpose of preparing us to attain to the “whole measure of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

When Moses met God on Mt. Sinai his face was aglow with radiance. Moses put a veil over his face “to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.” (1 Corinthians 3:13) Focusing on Jesus, however, creates a radiance that does not fade away. In fact, we become a little more like Jesus every time we look at Him. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) Our awkward and imperfect imitation of Jesus will be transformed into perfection of Jesus when He comes again: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce