The Art of Imitation
Love is bigger than a lake that
you could fall into; it is much more than a bed you could fall out of; genuine
love is on the level. You cannot fall into it; you cannot fall out of it.
Romantic love is intense, but shallow. A strong circumstantial wind can blow it
away in the blink of an eye. Genuine will is an issue of the will and not of
feelings. Feelings are followers, and if you follow your feelings, you will be
following that which follows circumstances. Genuine love is controlled by the
will. For this reason, it is found as the object of a command in Scripture. We
are commanded to love. This is not a feeling!
As we work our way through the ten commandments of marriage in the thirteenth chapter of
Hebrews, we have seen that the commandments for practical Christian living and
those for marriage are one in the same. You cannot talk about one without
talking about the other. They are a near-perfect parallel.
In the Christian life, we are called to
love our brother. Friendship or companionship is at the very heart of every
great marriage. Secondly, we are required to love the stranger or the unknown.
This is one of the great secrets in the marriage relationship: learning to love
the unknown and the unattractive part of our spouse. The third command is to
minister to the incarcerated; help those who are in trouble. And as husband and
wife, we have been given to each other to help each other in our areas of
weakness. In the Christian life, we have
a direct parallel where we are to bear one another’s burdens. We are to imitate
those who help us when we need it.
The fourth command was to
express acts of thanksgiving for all the positive influences of the past. In
marriage, just as in spiritual life, we build history and create memories.
These need to be kept in a positive register. This positive reinforcement of
one another is not optional for either a marriage or a walk with the Lord.
Today, we come to the fifth
command, which is the commandment to imitate. In the spiritual realm, we call
this the discipleship process. The making of a disciple, which is part of the
great commission, cannot be done with mere vocabulary transfers. There must be
an example first.
In marriage, this can be called the
maturing of the marriage bond. In God’s design, we grow towards one another. I
am not only to rely on my wife’s strengths, but also learn to develop them in
my life. By imitating one another from a positive perspective, we are
diminishing the weaknesses and enhancing the strengths that God has made. We are actually called to participate in the
creation process through the imitation process. Imitating our spiritual leaders
is a genuine challenge that we all ought to receive with great joy. We need to
develop the art of being like those who brought us to life!
The Fifth Commandment of
Marriage: Following
Who do we imitate?
A. Not
B. Not
C. Not
How do we imitate?
A. Look
B. Look
C. Look
D. Look
III. Why do we imitate?
A. Because
B. Because
C. Because
D. Because
E. Because