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In Christ’s final words to His church before He was taken up to heaven, He commanded us to be His witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). To help fulfill this command, God gave us role models to imitate, and there is none better in the history of the church than the Apostle Paul, who said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). There are two examples of Paul’s imitation of Christ that take my breath away the more I ponder them. Let’s consider them together.
The first occurs in Philippians 1:19–26, where Paul weighs the outcome of his imprisonment. As he ruminates, he opens his heart concerning whether he would personally choose to remain on earth or to go to heaven. To live or to die—that is the question. For himself, he considers it infinitely better to depart and be with Christ. “Better by far!” Of course—free from all death, mourning, crying, and pain. In the very presence of the Savior he loves so dearly. Seeing His glory face-to-face. The rich delights of heaven. Or by stark contrast, to continue on earth, imprisoned and afflicted in every city, beaten, falsely accused, hated, hungry, cold, yet doing it all for the benefit of God’s people on earth. “To remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account” (v. 24). That settles it for Paul. If given the choice, he would rather suffer on earth for the richness of God’s people than be in heaven surrounded by God’s pleasures. In that, he imitates the choice that Christ made to become man: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Paul’s imitation of Christ’s incarnational motive is amazing.
Yet as great as that is, it pales in comparison with Paul’s statement in Romans 9:2–3. There he expresses his intense sorrow over the lost among his fellow Jews, grieving deeply with unceasing anguish over the fact that they are on their way to hell. His anguish is so great that he could wish to be accursed and cut off from Christ for their salvation. His language is careful because he knows it could not be—he is not the Savior of the world, and his death could not add anything to the perfect work of Christ on the cross. But he is expressing a Christlike compassion for the lost, like that which led Jesus to drink God’s wrath on the cross for sinners: “I would become accursed to save them from hell.”
What about you, dear reader? Could you imitate Paul as he imitated Christ’s compassion? If you could, would you be willing to suffer a hard life to enrich God’s people? Would you be willing to trade your salvation to rescue those presently lost? Let us ask God to work in us this love for the church and this compassion for the lost.