If you’ve ever spent any time around young kids, you know you don’t really have to tell them to imitate you. They just do. At our house right now, my 4-year-old son is especially committed to doing things the way my husband does them. This has resulted in some low-level chaos, like his attempts to make me a soda. It’s sweet… though I don’t love cleaning up a creation overflowing from the soda maker. Still, it beats running him down to retrieve garage tools before he gets too far into an undisclosed “project”! My son is a keen observer of my husband, and our girls were the same with me at that age. That’s a beautiful thing, until it’s a stray “grown-up word” coming back out of their mouths. How did they hear that one from their car seat, but not us asking them to put their shoes on ten times?! That’s the great humbling of parenthood.

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Paul understood the power of imitation, and how it can shape what we become. Our key verse today might feel like an odd place to begin a new chapter, but it’s really the continuation of a thought that starts back in 1 Cor. 10:23. If you have time, it’s worth reading the full section.

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Starting in verse 23, Paul explains that while we have freedom in Christ, not everything we can do is something that helps us. Just because something is permissible, doesn’t mean it’s beneficial. Some choices, even if not sinful in and of themselves, can create confusion or difficulty for others.

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Paul specifically addresses eating meat sacrificed to idols in these verses. We don’t deal with that issue typically. For me, a modern equivalent showed up in my mid 20s when I chose to stop spending time in bars. There wasn’t a clear biblical command telling me I couldn’t go, and I wasn’t getting drunk when I was there. But it also wasn’t beneficial. In reality, I was normalizing an environment that created tension or temptation for some of the unbelievers and new believers I was doing life with. It simply wasn’t worth it when there were plenty of other ways to hang out.

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Paul lived with intentionality, always aiming to win others to Christ by what he said and did. The meat itself had no power over him, and eating it wasn’t inherently sinful. But if it caused confusion for others, it wasn’t worth it to Paul. He chose to model the servant leadership of Christ, prioritizing others over himself, and he calls us to do the same.

Sacrificial love and servant leadership are two of the clearest ways we imitate Christ. So, what does that actually look like in real life?  

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In marriage, this has looked like navigating areas where one of us feels strongly about something the other doesn’t fully understand. One in particular stands out to me from my own marriage. My husband eventually said, “Do I think this is an issue? No. But it’s also not as important as you. If it makes you uncomfortable, it’s gone.” Men, can I just share that this kind of response communicates deeply to your wife’s heart? It builds trust, love, and safety.  

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However, this type of attitude isn’t just for men and marriage. It’s a posture we can take in varying levels in all our relationships. How can we invite others to follow us as we follow Christ? This isn’t a call to be a pushover. It’s about valuing people over preferences. It’s a way we can tangibly choose, again and again, to reflect Christ in how we love others. Ask the Holy Spirit today to reveal if there are any areas in your life where you need to die to yourself/your preferences to better love others.