Original or Knock-Off?

Whoever said we could walk through this life without worries, difficulties, or unresolved issues was probably not a well person!  Choosing to serve Christ does not elevate an individual above the ebbs and flows of life.  In fact, it almost guarantees a few more hurdles!  If we really are living for Christ, we will face challenging people, circumstances, and moments of potential compromise which we may not have encountered otherwise.


^5-6You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.  (I Thessalonians 1:5-6)


As Paul commends the Thessalonian church, he points out the fact of their increased troubles since entering into relationship with Christ.  The reader may balk a little at this revelation, but the important thing to see is their great trouble was accompanied by the one who would walk them through it unscathed!  


Look at the progression - they paid careful attention to their examples in the faith.  They kept their eye on the actions and attitudes of those who had been walking with Christ longer than they had.  In so doing, they became imitators of what they saw.  Let me caution us here - not every example is worth imitating. Just because something bears the label doesn't ensure it as the true product!


Whenever we are imitating what we see, we are "molding" to a "model" we have before us.  This makes it doubly important for us to have accurate "models" so what is "molded" within is solid!  I have followed some pretty bad "models" in my years on this earth - both before and after choosing to follow Christ.  The things produced were definitely different depending on the "model" being followed.  If you have ever followed "bad directions", you know what I am referring to here.


There are all kinds of "knock-off" jeans, but only one Levis brand!  There all kinds of Coach purse knock-offs, but a genuine Coach purse bears the evidence of genuineness in many ways.  Noticeably enough, the thing which sets both of these "real things" off as originals is their cost!  The "knock-off" brands gains its popularity simply because it LOOKS LIKE the original without the COST!  


Indeed, the reason we have "knock-offs" is simply because somebody sees something worth imitating!  Yet, the knock-off will never measure up to the quality of the original!  This is why it is so important we have good examples!  We don't want to imitate a "knock-off" - we want to imitate the original!  This is why it is important to evaluate the ones we hold up an examples, or models, in our lives once in a while - comparing them to the Word of God and the telling truth revealed by the Holy Spirit.  


Paul says the believers learned to take the troubles with joy, and the joys with the trouble.  How?  Simply by having an example to keep their eyes on through the troubles - the Holy Spirit guiding them step-by-step.  They became imitators of Christ - allowing the Holy Spirit to create within them the "staying power" and the appreciation of the blessing of even the trouble!  They learned each ebb had a purpose to expose something otherwise hidden from their view - each flow had a driving force to propel them forward.  In each, they found joy - not because of the circumstance, but IN it.


My hope is for us to become imitators of the original - solidly molding our lives to the pattern laid out for us in Christ Jesus.  My goal is for us to never become cheap "knock-offs" - wanting the original, but not being willing to pay the price!  

Count it all joy!

 ^7-8"Listen now, you who know right from wrong, you who hold my teaching inside you:  Pay no attention to insults, and when mocked don't let it get you down.  Those insults and mockeries are moth-eaten, from brains that are termite-ridden, but my setting-things-right lasts, my salvation goes on and on and on."

(Isaiah 51:7-8 The Message)

There are times when we just feel like the world is against us - like all we live for and stand for is just ridiculed and considered to be silliness in the eyes of those around us.  These are the times when we need to re-read these words and take heart.  The unbeliever has no revelation of God beyond our testimony of a life "squared up" by living the principles God teaches.  It is the testimony of one that can affect the lives of millions!

Do you realize that mockery is really the highest form of honor we can receive?  Think about it - someone sees our the testimony of Jesus in us and finds it so convicting that the only thing they can do is to attempt to counterfeit it!  That is a true definition of mockery - to attempt to imitate or counterfeit!  This has been the pattern with humankind from the beginning of time - if we cannot have the real thing, we just try to get as close to it as possible!  Why else do you think we have "generic" everything on the store shelves?  Not only is it an imitation of the real thing, but it costs less!

I was once told that people make fun of what they don't really understand.  That is indeed true, but I think they also find what they don't understand a little "threatening" to them!  Their attacks are attempts to ridicule or deride the testimony of Christ within our lives that are often undertaken because there is a "threat" in the reality of Jesus they see in us!  As long as they are only presented with an "imitation" or the "generic Jesus", there is no threat to their way of life.  When there is any evidence of the reality of Christ in a person's life, it affects those around them.  The natural outcome of living by the teachings of Christ, allowing them to affect our conduct, is that others will sense the reality of Christ in us and be convicted by the evidence they see.  

I recall hearing my pastor years ago ask the question, "If you run into a total stranger this week, what characteristic of Christ will be the first thing they recognize in your life?"  Now, being wired the way I am, I wanted to raise my hand and begin firing off answers!  You know, the "pat" answers that we all know - the answers like:  "The unconditional love of Jesus", "The grace of God", or "The sweetness of Jesus' willingness to accept the sinner".  You probably could make your own list.  The fact is, when I really began to think that one through later on, I found that the "pat answers" really weren't all that "pat"!

In fact, I found that I pretty much had "conditions" on my love, "grace" was sometimes the furthest from my inclinations toward another, and "accepting" a sinner was almost impossible because they just didn't "fit" in my life!  Ouch!  Ummm....can you say, "Conviction"?  As I began to be honest about my own short-comings, God began to work with that honesty.  I am far from being able to love without "strings" attached (conditions), but I am getting better at it.  I have a lot to learn about grace, but I find that the more of it I am recipient of, the easier it is to understand how much another needs that same "slack" in their lives.  Accepting sinners for who and what they are is much easier when I get the first two pretty much in alignment with God's expectations.

So, the next time you are mocked for your faith, I would encourage you to not feel affronted by that counterfeiting of your faith, or the criticism of it.  In fact, you might just want to turn to God and thank him for the evidence of his life that is obviously "making it to the surface" in yours!  It is that evidence that is bringing conviction into another's and that is what brings God's grace into the lives of those most desperate to receive it!