They say, “You are what you eat.” By that logic, I should be a fried chicken by now with as much as I find myself going through drive-thru lines on weekdays. Many attempts have been made by my dietician to convince me to inject more vegetables into my diet, and I do try. Unfortunately, I frequently find myself a failure. The truth is that I do not enjoy vegetables as much as fried food. Any time the dietician says “chickpea” or “hummus” I wince! I have a challenging time choosing the healthy option when the tastier and not-so-good-for-you option is so readily available. Alas! My waistline suffers, and the numbers on my blood work are less than ideal. I reap more of the consequences for what I put into my body every year and I choose the carnally more enjoyable option.
Will Durant said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This is true in all aspects of our lives. What we eat, our habits, who we spend time with, etc. We take on the habits and traits of people we are around, and begin to imitate those within our social structure.
That imitation, whether it is intentional or not, is how we build the logic which dictates our lives. If we imitate worthless and sinful behaviors, that is what we will become. Second John 11 says, “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
The imitation here is directly correlated with the behavior of people, and begs the question of who we imitate to create our behavior. Do we imitate those who do good or evil? By imitating that behavior, we also do either good or evil.
The easiest way to illustrate this is through children. Children imitate their parents. People say, “That boy is just like his father.” The traits the father possesses, along with the values, virtues, and vices will be imitated by the son. As a result, those traits are passed on and will become part of the son, grandson, and great grandson’s personality.
God even used this same line of reasoning. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:31-32, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” To achieve these behaviors, what did Paul write next? He used a similar analogy in the very next chapter: “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children” (5:1).
Just as “you are what you eat” defines our physical self, “you are what you imitate” defines our spiritual self. Being around other Christians, favoring one another, and choosing to stand for the Word and the Truth is how we create what our mind will, subconsciously, imitate. Certainly, Peter did not seek to imitate evil behavior in Antioch as described in Galatians 2, but nonetheless, he stood condemned. The behaviors of the Jews in that situation influenced him and he began to imitate that behavior.
What do we imitate is what John is asking us. Is it the ones who want to be more like our father in heaven, or is it the ones who wish to be like something else? That question can only be answered individually. Just like junk food will degrade our bodies and hasten its inevitable destruction, imitating what is not of God will bring us to utter ruin in the end.
Lance Byers