Can you say "follow my example"?

In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul tells the church in Corinth “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Wow, that’s quite the statement, isn’t it? Can you and I say the same thing – to our children, to our neighbors, to our co-workers, to our spouses:

• copy my work habits
• duplicate the “mercy balanced with discipline” that I daily offer my children
• mirror my compassion to those who are unlike me
• imitate my life of genuine love for others
• match my patience

No? Me neither! So what now?

Commit to a Romans 12 lifestyle…and then let God do the rest.

Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”