You want to be like whom?

Proverbs 24:1-2 “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.”

I once read something Philip Yancey said about famous people, and how messed up their lives are. At some point in his career, he had the opportunity to meet with a lot of these actor types, and later he described how almost all of them were in some sort of psychotherapy, and their lives were empty and void of meaning, nothing you would really want to emulate.

Whether famous or not, we’re never to let our hearts become envious of people who don’t know Christ. It’s easy to do; I’ve let my heart go there many times before, sadly. Here’s a guy with lots of money, lots of skill in some sport, a really strong body, thinks on his feet superbly. These images mostly come from the movies, for me. But Christ is the One whom we are to emulate.

Ultimately, let Christ be your model for attitudes and behavior. Ask Him, “Lord, how do you want me to live? How do you want me to respond here?” Even if a person IS a follower of Christ, he or she can fail you, but Jesus never will.

It makes me a bit nervous when I see famous people who have decided to follow Christ, and then see young Christians so excited they’ve got a famous brother or sister up there that they can point to and say, “hey, he’s a Christian, too!” because, so often, that person fails horribly, crashes and burns.

Twice, in I Corinthians, the apostle Paul says, “imitate me”. In 4:16, he says, “be imitators of me.” And, in 11:1, Paul says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Yes, there are Godly men and women we should want to be like, insofar as they are trying to follow Jesus and live lives of integrity and influence. But, as Paul qualified his own words, be an imitator of those who are imitating Christ.

Matthew Henry says it this way: “Follow me as far as I follow Christ. Come up as close as you can to my example in those instances wherein I endeavor to copy after his pattern. Be my disciples, as far as I manifest myself to be a faithful minister and disciple of Christ, and no further. I would not have you be my disciples, but his.”