Friday, December 22, 2017

Being a Follower

UV 2864/10000 Being a Follower
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
Ephesians 5 v 1
We are called to be not just believers of God and Jesus as His human manifestation but to be followers of God and of Christ, His anointed Messiah. Today, unfortunately, we have many believers but few followers. A follower is one who walks in the same path and often in the same steps. We are to be imitators of God and of Jesus. Imitation, it is rightly said, is the highest form of worship. We are to imitate Jesus if we are true followers. We are to imitate Him in our inner attitudes and behaviour.
We are to imitate Him in our actions, reactions, speech, behaviour, aspirations, character. This is the reason, Jesus Himself exhorted us to “ Be perfect because your Father in Heaven is perfect.” We may never get as perfect as Jesus or the Father but we must be on the journey to perfection of our character. We need to undergo a day to day chipping, honing, pruning, perfecting so that we are improving from one degree of likeness to Jesus to the next. When we are about to speak, we need to ask what would Jesus say? When we are about to act or react, we need to ask what would Jesus do or how would He react to this stimulus, provovation or situation? When we are thinking certain thoughts, we need to ask what would Jesus think?
We are to reflect the love of the Father in all of our actions, reactions and conversations. Like Jesus, we are to be compassionate and empathise with the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the weak, the exploited and those against whom injustice and violence is perpetrated. The uni-verse states that as the best loved children of a father try to imitate their father in everything, we too as children of God are to emulate the Father in His holiness or purity. We are to avoid profanity, foolish talk, excessive anger, bitterness or lack of forgiveness, vindictiveness, lust, covetousness and consistently walk in the path of love shown to us by Jesus. Love is not a vague emotion but a pattern of actions consistently modelled on Jesus’ supreme sacrifice and obedience to the call of the Father.
Prateep V Philip

No comments:

Post a Comment