The Imitation of Paul

Perhaps the most famous of all devotional works is the fifteenth-century monastic book, The Imitation of Christ. Its title reflects Jesus' words in the upper room: "I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done for you." (John 13:15.)

Peter, present at the time, reiterates this principle. "Christ suffered for you," he says, "leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps." (1 Peter 2:21). But Paul's statement is even more startling. "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." (1 Cor 11:1.)

The call to imitate Christ leaves us with an excuse. How can I, a sinner, imitate the incarnate God? He had no sinful nature to hinder him, and he could call on all the resources of God at any time.

One answer to that excuse is to look at Romans 6, 7 and 8. But to finally squash it, we need only look at the author of these chapters - Paul. Here is a man who boasted of his weakness. (2 Cor.11:30.) Here is a man who described himself as 'the worst of sinners' - and went on to add, "But for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever! Amen." (1 Tim 1:15-17.)

Amen indeed. To God be honour and glory - because he could transform an ugly little Jewish fanatic into an apostle to the Gentiles, through whom directly or indirectly the great bulk of Christians in all ages have come to believe and so to be saved. Paul had no advantages over us in terms of sinlessness or inherent omnipotence - he denied it explicitly and forcefully. We have no excuse to fail to imitate him - in his attitudes, if not his deeds.

What, then, was central to Paul's 'imitation'? What enabled him to follow Christ's example, in which we can also follow him? First, foremost and easiest to miss was, I believe, his complete Christ-centredness.

To illustrate this point is difficult. Not from lack of material, but from the vast supply of it. Open any book of Paul's and there is Christ, supreme on every page. For Paul, to live was Christ (Php 1:21). He considered everything a loss if he could know him (Php 3:8). "Christ is your life,"8 he cried; "Christ is all." (Col 3:4.)

The manifesto of Paul's ministry is found in just the first three words of Colossians 1:28. Having just spoken of 'the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory', he asserts: 'We proclaim him.'

Understatement is a high Jewish art. Paul lived Christ. He spoke of him as the 'head' - the source of all life. Everything Paul had was in Christ; he had lost everything else. No wonder that he began to live like him.

And he lived like him in the most central aspect of Jesus' daily life: total dependence on God. In Colossians 1:29, he tells us, "To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully words in me." No man could have survived what Paul did in his own strength- even without his sufferings, thirty years of such a schedule would burn anyone out. Yet he did not burn out; living waters prevented him. [Author's note: I no longer believe this. See 'The Imperfect Apostle'.]

Just as Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing," (John 5:19), so Paul affirmed, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me" (Rom 15:18). Neither was passive - we must not make that mistake, and then blame God when he does not 'use' us - but nor did either take the glory to himself.

Jesus gave all the glory to the Father, and all the glory he had was given him by the Father; while Paul gave all the glory to Jesus, and all the glory he had was given him by Jesus.

For this reason Jesus could say, "I do not accept praise from man" (John 5:41), while Paul echoed him, "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of God" (Gal.1:10). They had an eternal perspective that rendered them 'dead to the world'. They did not love the world or anything in the world, and so the world could not blandish them.

Both could have spoken the words of the Psalmist: 'Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.' The difference is that Paul would have to continue: 'My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever' (Ps 73:25-26). As his falling-out with Barnabas over John Mark shows, he still sinned, but like his Lord he was free from the world's domination.

When the world realised this, it turned on them - only to find that this had no more effect in diverting them from their total devotion to God. Jesus, the Hebrew writer tells us, 'for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame' (Heb 12:2), and Paul shows a similar attitude: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Rom.8:18). If God enables us to gain this eternal perspective, nothing the world can do for us or to us will turn us aside.

Paul suffered the loss of everything, but he considered it rubbish desiring only Christ, and rejoicing in him in the midst of his sufferings.

Reading between the lines, we can infer that his strict Pharisaic family disowned and disinherited him - the former if anything a greater blow, in a family-oriented culture, than the latter. He was case on his own resources or what support he could get from the churches. And even this latter right he sacrificed for the sake of proclaiming Christ - making clear for the sake of future workers that it was a right, only one of many that he gave up for the gospel (1 Co 9). The context of his exhortation to imitate him as he imitated Christ is this very point: that like Christ he is not seeking his own good but the good of others and their salvation.

The whole book of Philippians, and especially chapter two, has this great theme of no sacrifice being too great if the end is to glorify God. As Paul said to the Ephesian elders, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24).

Philippians 2, in fact, contains one of the highest developments of the themes we have identified: the hymn of the self-emptying of Christ. It is centred on Christ, supremely, and deals with his sacrifice of all of his rights in total dependence upon God. And it opens with a command to imitate this: "Let this attitude be yours, which was also Christ Jesus'."

This brief hymn is also one of the finest examples of our last point about Paul: he fused theology and action into one. Theologians have exclaimed over the deep Christology of it, but that is not why Paul included it. He follows it with one of his favourite words: 'Therefore'.

Paul always has a 'therefore'. He never makes a theological point without a practical application - and, just as importantly, he never makes a practical exhortation without a theological basis. Anything less (and our theologians and preachers regrettably give us much less at times) is a return to law- truth without significance and authority without reason. While his letters can be seen to fall into a 'doctrinal' first part and a 'practical' second part, with a clear division, he is both doctrinal and practical throughout. He was a practitioner as well as a preacher; he built his house on rock. He writes to the Corinthians, "I am sending you Timothy . . . He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church" (1 Co 4:17).

We cannot ask, "How can we imitate Paul?" How can we not imitate the one who by his own confession was 'the worst of sinners', 'less than the least of all God's people', 'not worthy to be called an apostle' yet imitated Christ?