How Should We Imitate Paul - Final

Again, let me remind you where we have been:  To live like Paul, or to imitate Paul is to live out the implications of the Gospel.   This is the final installment of a series of blogs on this subject.

1. Why I believe that statement to be true?  Click HERE.
2. What is the Gospel?  Click HERE.
3. Is it possible to imitate Paul?  Click HERE.
4. How should we imitate Paul?  Click HERE.

In this final blog on the subject we want to look at what that might look like.  Many people tend to go to 1 Corinthians 13 to talk about love (and that is certainly not wrong); but cross-shaped love -- the love that lives out the implications of the Gospel is better described for us in Philippians 2, in my opinion.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:1–11, ESV)

From this passage I find these 4 principles.  A cross-shaped love is:

a)      Humble, looking to the needs of others;
b)      Service oriented;
c)      Obedient, regardless of the cost; and
d)      Identifies with the guilty and the lost.

This latter point is the least understood.  The Bible is clear that Christ did not avoid sinners. Someone has rightly said that there can be no impact without contact.  But when contact with sinners is done in a Pharisaic, judgmental way, it can be destructive.  But when Christians understand that apart from God's grace they too would be lost; and when Christians never forget their roots of depravity -- it makes our contact with unbelievers graceful and kind.

The challenge for us who have believed and obeyed the Gospel, is summed up in the question, "Are we living out the implications of the Gospel in our lives."   The good news is that we can. Because of God's mercy toward us, He has poured out His love into our hearts thus making us capable of loving others in a cross-shaped way.   Secondly he has given us His Spirit to enable us to do that.