Are you following Christ, or are you just a great pretender? Could someone else look at your life and copy it as a pattern for walking with God? Do you consider what your choices and decisions mean to God before you make them?

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." These were the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 11:1, and it was a very bold statement. Keep in mind that Paul was just a man. In fact, he was a man with a very dark past that he openly admitted and it was no secret to others. How could a man go from being one of the greatest persecutors of Christians to one of the most devoted Christians?

Paul learned how to live by the Word, and he encouraged believers to be “followers” of him, as he followed Christ. The unspoken part of this statement was also true: if Paul wasn’t following Christ, then he didn’t want people to follow him. Two words within the verse make this clear: “even as.” This makes his statement conditional. Paul wasn’t merely saying, “Hey everyone, copy me because I’m a super-Christian.” He knew better and besides; Paul knew his own history.

What he was saying was this: “Copy me as I copy Christ. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. Do what I’m doing if it is according to Christ and His Word. What Paul was saying wasn’t easy, but at least he had a walk that matched his talk. Could we say, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”? In other words, would our lives make a good pattern for someone else to help them walk with God?

What does it look like to follow Christ? In the letter to the believers at Philippi, the instructions that were given then are still valuable to us today. Philippians 2:5-8 gives us a pattern that serves as our example. This episode breaks the pattern down into five points that we can copy as we learn to follow Christ.

ICU--In Christ Unconditionally New Testament Case Studies

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