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chapter. In verse 10 the apostle concludes the desires that constituted the qualifications
for attaining the prize by using the words, "conformable to His death", which word is
prefixed with the same particle that we have rendered by the word "joint". In verse 21
the glorious answer to the conformity to death of verse 10 is given in the words,
"fashioned like unto the body of His glory", the words being the verbal and substantive
forms of the same word.
The "joint imitators" of verse 17, doctrinally, as well as literally, link these two
references. Paul's own individual conformity to the death of Christ, which led on to his
conformity to the glory of Christ, becomes the example for our imitation, that we being
already fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers, may by becoming fellow
imitators share with him the added glory of attaining unto the prize of the high calling. If
we have entertained hopes and fears regarding our place in the contest, the matter may
become simplified by a prayerful examination of the pattern we have to follow.
The first epistle given by inspiration that Paul wrote contains in the sixth verse the
reference to imitation, "and you became imitators of us". Such statement requires a high
standard of spiritual attainment for any teacher to make without qualification, yet the
apostle's statement is even fuller than this, for he adds, "and of the Lord", linking, by the
authority of God, his own example with that of his peerless Lord.
The imitation here noted is explained as their having "received the word in much
affliction with joy of the holy Spirit", so that they in turn became "types to all believers in
Macedonia and Achaia". In I Cor. 4: 16 the apostle concludes a passage (which uses
such loathsome similes as "the filth of the world", and "the offscouring of all things", and
tabulates such privations as hunger and thirst, nakedness and homelessness), with the
words, "Wherefore, I beseech you, become ye imitators of me"! Here again the imitation
of the apostle led to suffering and rejection. In I Cor. 11: 1 he concludes another line of
argument, this time not laying the emphasis upon suffering, but upon the placing of the
well being of others ever before our own considerations:--
"Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God:
even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many,
that they may be saved; become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ."
How much the apostle realized that his life was to be an example for the saints to
imitate is seen in such a passage as II Thess. 3: 7-9:--
"For ye yourselves know how it behoves you to imitate us: for we were not disorderly
among you; neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labour and
travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you; not because we have
not authority, but in order that we might give ourselves a type for you to imitate us."
This type which the Lord exhorts us to imitate sets before the believer suffering,
hardship, self denial, care for others, toil and labour; the power of the example is found in
the words, "even as I also am of Christ". He so followed his Lord that his example
becomes a type or pattern for us to imitate. From another standpoint, that of distinct
doctrine, we might consider other passages where Paul and his life and teaching are