Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Relationships and Religion
To Imitate God

To Imitate God

Last updated on: May 26, 2023 at 2:48 am by Henry Karlson

0 Comments

To Imitate God 2023-05-26T02:48:49-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Emmanuel Tzanes: Image Of Jesus / Wikimedia Commons

God is love. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God (cf. Col. 1:15). While we come to know God through God’s works, through the uncreated energies, those works are shown to us in a comprehensible fashion through the human image of God, that is, in Jesus. All the things God does as God, Jesus does in a humanly fashion (while still, in his divine nature, doing them as God). We best come to know the goodness and love of God through Jesus, that is, by the way Jesus represents the divinity in a created image. The God who cannot be comprehended can and is represented by God in the incarnation. Now we can come to know what God is like. We have something to truly apprehend, not just in and through the divine energies (or works of God), but through our personal encounter with Jesus (and through Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit). Similarly, due to the incarnation, that is, to the way God represents the divine nature in a created form, we have the means by which we can imitate God: by imitating Christ, as Paul says we should do: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1-2 RSV). God is love. Jesus shows us the way not only to love, but to love in a way analogous to the transcendent divine love of God. Everything we say and do should be a reflection of that love. This is what Jesus did with his whole temporal life. He showed the world the love God has for it. And so, when we imitate Jesus, we imitate God, and we are to do so by loving everyone and everything in creation. If we do so, we will find God abiding in us in and through that love:

Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit (1 Jn. 4:7-13 RSV).

If we have not already done so, we should be able to realize God is love in and through the humanity of Jesus. We will do so, not only because we understand God’s love is being revealed to us in and through Jesus’ humanity, but also because, if we imitate Jesus, we will find ourselves coming to know what love really is and see how it relates to God. That is, even if we at first do not perceive the divine nature in Jesus, we can still see the greatness of his love and imitate it. The more we do so, the more we will engage Jesus and the grace Jesus gives us, leading us to being transformed thanks to our cooperation with grace due to our acts of love. We will begin to see the connection between Jesus’ human love with divine love, to see the two are one in him, that the human will follows and acts in connection with the divine will. In this way, we begin to see Jesus not simply as a man, but as the God-man, as a divine person who assumed human nature to show us the divine nature and the love God has for us in a form which we can properly apprehend. Thus, what Origen said, that is, what at first might seem impossible, becomes possible thanks to the incarnation:

Whose imitator must I become? Is it the firstborn of all creation? Wisdom? Logos? Truth? Or am I, as a human being, ordered to become the imitator of the human Jesus, so that I may imitate his humanity? I do not say that it is unfeasible to imitate his divinity, for ascending I progress and by God’s grace I achieve the ability to imitate the divinity of Christ – if it is actually possible to imitate the divinity of Christ. [1]

We can embrace love, and so imitate God’s love, in many fashions. However, in all of them, it is important for us not to neglect showing kindness to everyone:

Generosity is also proper to merciful and gentle souls. There is nothing more worthy of human beings than to be the imitators of the Creator, and, according to the measure of their own faculties, to be executors of divine work. When the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the sick cared for, does not the help of God fill full the hands of the minister, and is not the kindness of the servant a gift of the Lord? Although he has no need of help in applying mercy, he also regulates his power that he supports the sufferings of human beings through human beings. [2]

We are not to limit ourselves concerning whom we show mercy, grace, and love. All of humanity, indeed, all of creation is loved by God, and so are to be loved by us:

Although the poverty of the faithful ought especially to be helped, still those who have not yet received the Gospel must receive mercy in their troubles. We must love the mutual participation in human nature of all people, and it ought to make us benevolent to those who are subject to us in whatever condition, especially if they are now reborn in the same grace, and redeemed at the same price of the blood of Christ. [3]

In our service to God, therefore, it is important that we do not seek ways to divide people up, thinking some of them, Christians, deserve our help and love, while others, non-Christians, and those we deem as sinners, do not. All of humanity should be loved by us. This is how we overcome the division brought into the world by sin. We should, therefore, take the words of Ficino to heart: “Therefore, most humane man, persevere in the service of humanity. Nothing is dearer to God than love. There is no surer sign of madness or of future misery than cruelty.”[4]

This is how we become imitators of Christ. This is how we are meant to represent Christ to the world. Insofar as we do not do so, we have failed to be imitators of Christ. Christians who do not acknowledge the needs of others, who find excuses as to why they should not help those in need, do not properly follow Christ. And, insofar as they deny such help to those in need, they follow such a Satanic cruelty, it seems they are more followers of the spirit of the anti-Christ than Christ. Those who do this ending up giving in and following all kinds of vices, for love is the foundation of all virtue. They do not develop the character they are supposed to have as an adopted child of God. This is why Solvoyov was right in pointing out the deplorable state of Christians who find a way to excuse themselves, or their country, from helping those in need:

Avarice and hypocrisy are common enough vices of human nature and there is nothing surprising in the objections they raise against charity. What is very surprising is that there are Christian states which still further narrow the eye of the needle through which the rich enter the kingdom of God by enacting laws which forbid begging. By doing so the Christian state undermines its own foundations, for it does not exist to protect man’s vices (such as those of avarice and hypocrisy) but the promote the good of all, and this supreme office properly depends upon the precept of charity: to uphold the weak, defend the downtrodden, help those who are in distress, and so to pour out divine grace upon the earth. [5]

Thus, those who are Christian are called to the path of love, to show the world the love of God. The more they do this, the more they fulfill their vocation, while the less they do this, the more they contend against the grace they received, and in the end, they become, not a witness of God and God’s love, but its rejection. Instead of following Christ, they follow the spirit of the anti-Christ, the spirit of hate, the spirit which looks at how to keep others down instead of lifting them up. Christians are not to follow the path of hate, but the way of love. It is by that love they will prove themselves to be followers of Christ because they will be imitators of him, and so of God. This is why it is imperative for Christians to discern the ways of love and reject all its violations if they want to be who and what they are meant to be.

[1] Origen, Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314. Trans. Joseph W. Trigg (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2020), 65 [Homily 2 on Psalm 15].

[2] St Leo the Great, Sermons. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland CSJB and Agnes Josephine Conway SSJ (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1996), 189 [Sermon 43].

[3] St Leo the Great, Sermons, 178 [Sermon 41].

[4] Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Volume 1. trans. by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1975; repr. 1988), 101 [Letter 55 to Tommaso Minerbetti].

[5] Vladimir Solovyey, God, Man & The Church. The Spiritual Foundations Of Life. Trans. Donald Attwater (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), 42.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

General Christian

Relationships and Religion

Previous Post

May 25, 2023

The Eucharist Is Not Mere Flesh And Blood

Next Post

May 28, 2023 The Eschatological Church And Pentecost

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Gosh, did that hit the spot. I have been having great anxiety lately. And I ..."

Mark Wilson

Rejecting Doom: Christian Hope And Human ..."

"Justice and peace are two sides of the same coin. Where there is justice, there ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

Justice First, Charity Beyond It: Serving ..."

"Thank you for your very, very powerful and very, very insightful analysis of the relationship ..."

alwayspuzzled

Justice First, Charity Beyond It: Serving ..."

"Given the amount of lethal malevolence that has prevailed in human history for the past ..."

alwayspuzzled

We Must Value Our Health

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz