Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
The ESV says, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly beloved children." There's a command here from Paul, and I want you to catch what he doesn't say. He's not saying imitate God and then you might become a child of God.
It's not, "Be better.” It's not, “Do this, do that. Be like God. And if you are, then maybe God will make you His child. Maybe God will adopt you." No, the message that Paul sends here is to imitate God because you already are a child of God. Now that right there, that is the essence of the Gospel. That is what makes Christianity unique. That is the difference between the Gospel and every other religion, because every manmade system—if I could use religion in that way, which is a system made by man to get to God—every system that man comes up with is, "Clean yourself up, follow these rules, and meet the standard. If you do those things, then God might accept you.”
Accepted, Therefore I Obey
But the Gospel is not, "I obey, therefore I am accepted by God." The Gospel is, "I have been accepted by God, therefore I obey." I don't obey or imitate God to get something from Him. I imitate God because I've already received everything from Him. Think about a child and their parents. They naturally, as they grow up, take on the mannerisms of their parents. They say things like their parents say them. They respond to trouble the way their parents respond to trouble. Their tone of voice might match. All of that, it reflects their parents who raised them.
Well, Paul is saying that that same dynamic exists spiritually, and that is that once you belong to God, you begin to reflect God as you imitate Him. You're an image bearer of God. That image has been marred, we might say, by your sin, like a crack in a mirror. But as you grow in your relationship with God, as you seek to please Him, as you imitate Him more and more, God's image is being restored in you.
Reflecting His Character
To imitate God means to reflect His character. That means when you tell the truth, you are imitating God. It means when you forgive somebody, you are imitating God. It means when you walk in love, you are imitating God. Thomas Watson, he understood this deeply, and he said, "Whoever God adopts for his child resembles Him. He not only bears his heavenly Father's name, but His image."
When you think about imitating God, remember this is not about performance. It's not about earning points with God. It is about your identity—who you are, a child of God—reshaping your behavior. You have been claimed by God. You've been given a new name. You've been brought into a new family. You have a new inheritance, and now you live like someone who is a child of God, your Father.
How do you need to imitate God today? What is it about God's character that you need to imitate today? Is it your patience? Is it your forgiveness? Is it your kindness? Remember what Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1 says: "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children."
