Quotes about Imitation

Some people have a warped idea of living the Christian life. Seeing talented, successful Christians, they attempt to imitate them. For them, the grass on the other side of the fence is always greener. But when they discover that their own gifts are different or their contributions are more modest (or even invisible), they collapse in discouragement and overlook genuine opportunities that are open to them. They have forgotten that they are here to serve Christ, not themselves.

Satan's method has often been to imitate God. Satan is still using this form of deception, and often his representatives are being disguised as ministers of righteousness.

The lives of many reflect the practices and standards of this present world . . . they are more interested in imitating the world system dominated by Satan than in imitating Christ.

A false religion is like the imitation of high fashion. The very presence of counterfeits proves the existence of the real. There would be no imitations without a genuine product. God's original design has always had imitators and counterfeits!

In America we have an idolatry called the "adulation of youth." Apparently distressed by their inability to communicate with the younger generation, many adults simply imitate it.

Satan perverts everything good by mimicking and mocking the real thing.

Man boasts of his nobility, his ideals, and his progress. Man's goal is imitation, not redemption.

Why, therefore, except through foolishness and miserable error, shouldst thou humble thyself to worship a being to whom thou desirest to be unlike in thy life? And why shouldst thou pay religious homage to him whom thou art unwilling to imitate, when it is the highest duty of religion to imitate Him whom thou worshippest?

God offers authentic LOVE. His devotion is the real deal. But He won't give you the genuine until you surrender the imitations.

But to follow Jesus is not to imitate him, for following him does not mean becoming a Jesus oneself. Nor does it mean admiration of a hero and a mystical contemporaneity with him.[48] One follows Christ in one's own response to the mission of Christ at the present day and in taking up one's own cross.

The fact is, Jesus was the greatest human being who ever lived, and if all we have to look forward to in life is the frustration of trying to be someone we are not, then we've got better ways of enjoying the interval between birth and death. But the "good news" is that Jesus /doesn't/ want us to be "like" Him. He wants to share His resurrection life with us. He doesn't want us to imitate Him; instead, Christ, the Unspeakable Gift, wants to live in and through us.

When the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian."[2]