What does "imitate me as I imitate Christ" mean (1 Corinthians 11:1)?

But verse 1 preserves the continuity from chapter 10. As Paul followed Christ in his self-sacrificing devotion to the glory of God, so he exhorts saints to follow him; not to be tinder his domination, but to follow his example. And he commends them for keeping him in such remembrance as to keep the instructions he had given them, no doubt as to their assembly character. He is glad to give such commendation first, though correction was necessary in some things.

There is a real reason for this. You will have to put yourselves in the shoes of those early Christians to understand the position. Imagine that you live in Thessalonica; you have been brought up in all the blackness of paganism and idolatry. One day there comes into your city the Apostle Paul, and a companion. They come without any introduction or committee behind them. They have no Bible and no hymn book. Christianity is not a continuation of Judaism. It is something fresh, and those early Christians were dependent upon what they heard and what they saw in the deportment of the preachers. When these heathen listeners were brought under the power of the Gospel and became Christians, they might say to themselves, How can I have any idea of what Christianity really is, or of what Christ is like? The only chance we have of knowing what Christ is like is by watching carefully the lives of the men who brought the good news. They would look at them very carefully, their lives would impress them, and they would imitate their ways, and they would thus become followers of the Apostle, and really of the Lord. And, if they become followers of the Lord through the Apostle in an intermediate way, it would lead to the following of the Lord in a very immediate way. That is why I read 1 Corinthians 11:1. That states the whole matter in a nutshell. All Paul wanted was that they should so see Christ in his ways, that they would follow the Lord Himself.

The apostle then lays down the still larger and golden rule of christian conduct: "Whether then ye eat or drink, or do anything, do all things unto God's glory. Give no occasion of stumbling, either to Jews or Greeks, or to the church of God; even as I too please all in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but that of the many, that they be saved. Be imitators of me, even as I too am of Christ." (Ver. 31; 1 Cor. 11:1.) Thus, if one does all to God's glory, self is not sought to be gratified, but given up; and in this way is no stumbling-block presented to man, on the one hand, whether Jews or Gentiles, or to God's assembly, on the other. Love alone so walks, seeking God's glory and man's good. Against the fruit of the Spirit there is no law, even among those who vaunt law most, and least love grace. So it was with the apostle habitually; the most uncompromising of all the apostles, none equalled him in gracious concession, where it could be consistently with Christ.

In eating or drinking, therefore, as in all else that we do, we are to consider, not merely ourselves and our liberty, but “the glory of God”, and the consciences of our brethren, and thus avoid giving offence to Jews, or Gentiles, or the assembly of God. Further, we are not only to avoid giving offence to any, but we are to follow the Apostle, even as he pleased all men in all things, seeking not his own profit, “but that of the many, that they may be saved”. And how did he seek to “please all”? Not, we may be sure, by associating with their evils, but by following Christ in all His lowly grace. The Apostle can thus conclude this portion of his Epistle with the exhortation, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”.

It is not a question of what J. N. D. says, nor of what Spurgeon did, nor of what St. Augustine wrote, but of our being formed in moral exercise by the Word of God bringing all before us that is true in Christ, 1 John 2:8. If I find that in a certain matter Augustine or Spurgeon followed the Lord it is joy to me to think of it, and I imitate their faith, but not because they did it. Faith led them to do a certain thing which is according to Christ and Christianity, and I do it because I see it to be of Christ. The apostle says, "be ye followers (imitators) of me, EVEN AS I AM ALSO OF CHRIST." That is our rule. If we think of those later than the apostles we have "Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you THE WORD OF GOD), whose faith follow," Heb. 13:7. In so far as they spoke THE WORD OF GOD to you remember them; in so far as they themselves obeyed that word in faith, imitate them. It is not a blind attachment to a leader, not doing things because a leader does them or says them, but only so far as they had the Word of God in all its undiluted purity as the basis of their life and ways.

He begins by speaking to them of the leaders now passed away, who had spoken to them the word of God, and considering the issue of their conversation, they were to imitate their faith. Leaders there will always be, and rightly when it is their faith that carries them ahead of others. But faith must be in the word of God, and must have this to justify itself to others. Thus true guidance is always by the Word, and this is what preserves it from being merely following of men. Apart from this, we may go easily astray in the path of very good men. Peter led Barnabas astray after this fashion. Paul says, "Follow me"; but he adds, "as I follow Christ."

In making known His gospel God is pleased to use, not the tongues of angels, but those of men, recipients themselves of the same grace; who can give testimony with their lives as with their lips. Upon this the apostle lays great emphasis: "even as ye know what sort of persons we were among you for your sakes." This had had its part in making the Thessalonians what they were: "and ye became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit." Thus the work makes known the workman; while it is just as true that the more the workman is with God, the less of himself there will be in it. "Ye are our epistle," says the apostle to the Corinthians, "forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us; written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Cor. 3:2-3). And this is what makes the "imitation" of such workmen to be safe and right; for there is this qualification always in it, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ;" as here — "imitators of us and of the Lord." How good to be able to have a well-grounded confidence that these two things are one! The effect is manifest: "read and known of all men," is said of the Corinthians; and here the report went all abroad of these who had turned to God from idols, — to serve the living and true God. But beyond this, such was the freshness among these Thessalonians that they "became patterns to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia."

(V. 17). In order that they may be his imitators, the Apostle has sent Timothy to remind them of his “ways which be in Christ”. If he desires us to imitate himself, it is only in as far as his ways are in Christ, so blessedly brought before us in the account he has just given of the life of faithful servants. Of Timothy he can also say that he has proved himself to be “faithful in the Lord”. Further, Timothy would witness that the Apostle's “ways which be in Christ” were the same in every assembly. Men have introduced into their self-constituted systems ways according to their own ideas. For the one who bows to Scripture there are no other ways than those which the Apostle taught “everywhere in every assembly”.

And as in the above illustration so it is in the text already quoted from Peter's First Epistle. To follow the steps of Christ, you must study His "hupogrammos"; because what He did you are expected to do. The Lord said, "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15). "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me" (Matt. 11:29). The apostle Paul writes, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). Another apostle, John, says, "He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2:6). Notice very carefully how you are exhorted to have the eye on Christ; and, of course, this implies especially on what is chronicled of Him in the word. Indeed, there is no other way by which you can rightly know what He did or how He walked. If you follow another person in any measure, it is only safe in as far as you compare the conduct of that person with that of Christ as known from the scripture. Hence Paul in addressing the Corinthian saints says, "Be ye followers [imitators] of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1).

His entreaty in verse 16 that they should be followers of him, must be considered in its context. He certainly did not merely seek followers for himself, but urges them to follow his example of willing self-sacrifice for Christ's sake, rather than to be self-indulgent. This important object led him to send Timothy to Corinth (his beloved child in the faith also), one who met the requirement of verse 2 of faithfulness to the Lord. He was not sent to teach them any new thing, but to reaffirm the truth as Paul had given it, truth exemplified in Paul's ways which were "in Christ," and which Paul had consistently taught everywhere in every assembly. The same truth is applicable to all saints everywhere, and at all times.