Imitate Me. Part 2

We left off with the question of what it means to imitate Jesus. We have seen that imitating Jesus is not encompassed in the particulars or in the principles of his life. Surely it consists of both but neither by itself is sufficient for imitating Jesus. So, are we stuck here? How do we figure out when to follow the particulars of Jesus life and which principles we are supposed to extract and follow? Is there some system that we can learn that sorts each out in categories for certain instances in our lives?


John in his gospel records Jesus telling the disciples the truth of who he is. Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” He also says, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father”(Jn.14). How could the disciples not be troubled? Jesus had just announced that he was one with the Father, that He in essence was God. He then tells the disciples that He is going away. Put yourself in the disciple’s perspective. They have given up everything to follow this man, they have seen his great miracles, and they truly believe he is going to usher in the kingdom of God. How can they believe in him if he goes? How can they follow him if he’s not there?

Jesus proclaims a divine mystery to the twelve: that even when he leaves them physically he does not truly leave them. He gives another who is called the Helper. This Helper is the Holy Spirit. Jesus goes on to say, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:13-15). Jesus speaks this to the disciples and we see in Acts 2 that on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit is bestowed upon the church. So, how is to our advantage that we receive the Holy Spirit? We have Jesus not merely with us but dwelling in us. The disciples followed Jesus physically and listened to his teaching but they did not have the very power of Christ’s life dwelling in their mortal bodies. Paul says,” If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you”(Rom.8:11). Do we realize the power that dwells within us?

So, how do we follow Jesus? We listen to the Spirit. We can read scripture and pick out principles and virtues or even memorize certain particulars of Jesus and imitate him in that way; but ultimately this is not what it means to imitate Jesus. Just as the disciples heard the voice of Jesus and obeyed so we are to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and obey. Sometimes this means taking a principle from Jesus life and sometimes we follow him in a specific particular of his life. There are situations in which we cannot find a direct principle or particular to guide us. This should not worry us because we do not follow a principle list but a person who lives within us and has promised that he will not leave or forsake us. But can we hear him? What does it look like to live a life dependent upon the Spirit and His guiding? If living by the Spirit is equivalent to following Jesus than shouldn’t Christians know the Spirit’s voice better than anything?