1 Corinthians 4:6-13
6 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures,[b] you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. 7 For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?
8 You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you. 9 Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and angels alike.
10 Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed.11 Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. 12 We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. 13 We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment.
14 I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. 15 For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. 16 So I urge you to imitate me.
I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. So I urge you to imitate me.
This week we got a puppy for the children for their Christmas present. We chose the quiet, cuddly puppy but somewhere on the journey home, someone must have switched it up on us because what we now have is a crazy, nipping, ball of energy. She sleeps for hours and then goes completely insane.
When she is at her most chaotic, Noa, our 3 year old, say, ‘don’t worry she is just learning.’ And she is right. Puppies don’t just arrive house trained and obedient. They require discipline, guidance and help to grow into healthy adult dogs. The best piece of advice that I have read was in a book I bought to help us. It said, ‘everything that you do is training them or training you.’ They want humans to be better for dogs and we want dogs to be better for humans. They are constantly being shaped, the question is how.
I think that this is what Paul is saying too. That the church is a work in progress. They are acting like they have it all together and know everything but really they are just puppies. So, he encourages them to copy him, to mimic the way that he lives out his faith as they are still in formation. By watching him, they can see the way that healthy faith is lived out.
How can you train your habits and attitudes to become more like Jesus?
