1 Cor 11:1 Be immitators of me, as I also am of Messiah.
These are the words of Paul, writer of much of the New Testament. He is telling the followers of this new faith (later to become known as Chistianity), to immitate him. He did this with confidence, knowing that he himself is immitating our Messiah, Yeshua. But why was this even necessary? Why would he not just tell them to immitate Yeshua directly? Why immitate Paul? The answer is simply because at this time, there were no New Testament writings in which they could read about the actions of and the example set by Yeshua. This was a new faith and Paul was one of the pioneers in the preaching thereof.
But for us today things are very different...we have a bible through which we can read of the works of our Saviour, and can immitate him directly...there is no need to immitate any man. Sadly though, some of our leaders, and most who proclaim to be Christian, are not 'immitators of Messiah'.
I'll refer to them here as "Christians"...in quotes...think of someone doing air quotes when saying it.
This is because there is such a difference between the Christian that Jesus calls us to be, and someone who calls themself a "Christian":
A "Christian" is someone who has the title due to cultural influences...someone who has probably grown up in church, and for whom attending church is just something that must be done every Sunday...it is the cultural thing to do, brought down from parent to child through generations. Or it is someone who has found some comfort in attending church - it fills some gap for human interaction in their life. Or it is someone who has heard the gospel, and to whom the teachings of Jesus make sense, and they latch on to these as another set of rules that have to be lived by in order to live a 'good life' and to please God.
A Christian is someone who has come to a point of realization that his/her sin separated him/her from YHVH, but has believed that Yeshua died in order to pay the price for his/her sin, and has repented of sin, and lives a life lead by the Ruach Hakodesh - the Holy Spirit. It is someone who lives in a constant, devoted, relationship with a loving heavenly Father. It is someone through whom this love of the Father becomes manifested to the world as evidence of the relationship.
Please don't let the true message of the gospel be clouded by the hypocritical and judgmental actions of "Christians".
These are the words of Paul, writer of much of the New Testament. He is telling the followers of this new faith (later to become known as Chistianity), to immitate him. He did this with confidence, knowing that he himself is immitating our Messiah, Yeshua. But why was this even necessary? Why would he not just tell them to immitate Yeshua directly? Why immitate Paul? The answer is simply because at this time, there were no New Testament writings in which they could read about the actions of and the example set by Yeshua. This was a new faith and Paul was one of the pioneers in the preaching thereof.
But for us today things are very different...we have a bible through which we can read of the works of our Saviour, and can immitate him directly...there is no need to immitate any man. Sadly though, some of our leaders, and most who proclaim to be Christian, are not 'immitators of Messiah'.
I'll refer to them here as "Christians"...in quotes...think of someone doing air quotes when saying it.
This is because there is such a difference between the Christian that Jesus calls us to be, and someone who calls themself a "Christian":
A "Christian" is someone who has the title due to cultural influences...someone who has probably grown up in church, and for whom attending church is just something that must be done every Sunday...it is the cultural thing to do, brought down from parent to child through generations. Or it is someone who has found some comfort in attending church - it fills some gap for human interaction in their life. Or it is someone who has heard the gospel, and to whom the teachings of Jesus make sense, and they latch on to these as another set of rules that have to be lived by in order to live a 'good life' and to please God.
A Christian is someone who has come to a point of realization that his/her sin separated him/her from YHVH, but has believed that Yeshua died in order to pay the price for his/her sin, and has repented of sin, and lives a life lead by the Ruach Hakodesh - the Holy Spirit. It is someone who lives in a constant, devoted, relationship with a loving heavenly Father. It is someone through whom this love of the Father becomes manifested to the world as evidence of the relationship.
Please don't let the true message of the gospel be clouded by the hypocritical and judgmental actions of "Christians".
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