Imitation has long been a primary form of learning. It begins with an infant who copies his parents, from waving “bye, bye” or taking his first steps. God placed something inside each human to make order out of life’s experiences and stimuli—we call that learning. Very little is learned from scratch, though. Behavior is the sum total of all that we take in from around us, sorted through and then adapted by our own internal decision making and evaluative processes to the actions we take that then affect the outer world. Imitation is the shortcut. We do something simply because we have seen someone else do it, because we judge (however quickly or thoughtfully) it to be the correct way to behave.One can set upon to only act according to what one has thoroughly thought through himself. However, life is not long enough to figure it all out for oneself. So in the Christian world, imitation is a good thing, it is based on trust. We trust someone else enough that we deem his or her behavior worthy of our imitation and we build from there.

Paul consciously invited his readers, the Philippians and us, to imitate him—like a parent teaching the child how to tie his shoe, saying, “Here, watch me.” He laid his whole life out there for them as a model: the things he taught, what they have received, heard and seen in Paul’s life.

What are needed today are mentors and disciplers like the apostle Paul. One of the things we should imitate about him is his ministry of discipling others. There is only so much that can be conveyed through pulpit preaching on Sunday mornings. What is needed for Christian growth and maturity are models to be followed. Models of mature Christian men and women who are not afraid to say, “Yes, imitate me as you grow in your Christian life.”

Is it arrogant for a person to make such a statement; does it imply that he has arrived at perfection? Of course not. Paul already said that he himself had not yet arrived to complete maturity (Phil 3:13). Rather, it means a Christian at some point ought to be able to say, “Yes, I have grown and matured in my walk with Christ. I am not perfectly mature yet, but I can show to younger Christians by my life and teaching how it works for me.”

There is a particular insight here, though, in Paul’s ministry. God had given him as an inspired, biblical model to follow, and when we imitate his sacrificial life we will experience the presence of peace from the God of peace.