“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #40
“For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17).
In the verse prior, Paul begged the Corinthians to “follow” him. The word for follow there is the word we get mimetic from—he is talking about imitation. In the verse prior to that he identifies himself as more than a teacher. He was their father. The way children follow a father is by means of imitation. As dearly loved children, Paul says elsewhere, be imitators of God (Eph. 5:1). Children imitate.
Now in this verse, we learn that imitation can work at a distance. Timothy was a dearly loved son to Paul, and he sent Timothy to be with the Corinthians so that they could see Paul’s reflection in him. As a beloved son, he had imitated Paul. Paul knew this—he was “faithful in the Lord.” Consequently he was in a position to remind them of Paul’s way of life, and Paul’s way of life was something he taught in all the churches.
The Christian life is a way, and it is a way that must be copied if we are to understand it rightly.