Paul sets before his Christian...
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Paul sets before his Christian peopIe the highest standard in all the world. He tells them that they must be imitators of God. Later Clement of Alexandria was to say daringly that the true Christian wise person practices being God. When Paul talked of imitation he was using language which the wise men of Greece could understand. This was a main part in the training of the orator. The teachers of rhetoric declared that the learning of oratory depended on three things: (1) theory, (2) imitation and (3) practice. The main part of their training was the study and the imitation of the masters who had gone on before. It is as if Paul said: "If you were to train to be an orator, you would be told to imitate the masters of speech; you are not training in oratory; you are training in life; and you must set yourself to imitate the Lord of all good life."
When I was growing up in a local church attending a local church school class, I was very impressed with my fifth grade teacher. He seemed to evoke many God-like qualities. He seemed to have more patience than any other man I knew. He was loving and caring with each and every member of the class. Before long I remember wanting to be like that man. I even went out and wanted to buy a tie just like the one he wore like clockwork the first Sunday of the month. As I grew up I had many fond memories of this great and committed church school teacher. At my ordination he was in attendance wearing that same favorite tie that I always liked. I did not have the look-alike on but it was the imitation of Christ that I could still see in him that I prayed would be seen in me.
-- Smith
When I was growing up in a local church attending a local church school class, I was very impressed with my fifth grade teacher. He seemed to evoke many God-like qualities. He seemed to have more patience than any other man I knew. He was loving and caring with each and every member of the class. Before long I remember wanting to be like that man. I even went out and wanted to buy a tie just like the one he wore like clockwork the first Sunday of the month. As I grew up I had many fond memories of this great and committed church school teacher. At my ordination he was in attendance wearing that same favorite tie that I always liked. I did not have the look-alike on but it was the imitation of Christ that I could still see in him that I prayed would be seen in me.
-- Smith
