Follow My Example

Observe the double command in verse 17. Join together in following my example, and keep your eyes on those who live as we do. Paul offers himself as a pattern and then widens it to include others who share his way of life. Faith is learned by watching, and he is not embarrassed to say so.

Interpret this in light of what he has just said. Paul has admitted in verse 12 that he has not already arrived or been made perfect. So the example is not perfection. It is direction. Follow me in pressing on, in forgetting what is behind, in straining forward. A runner mid-race can be an example to other runners precisely because he is still running. Contrast this with the enemies of the cross, whose direction is earthward and whose end is destruction.

Apply it in two directions. You need people to watch, believers whose lives are pointed at heaven and who are visibly still pressing on. And someone is watching you, whether or not you have offered yourself as a pattern.

Who are the people you keep your eyes on, and are their lives pointed where you want yours to go? If someone followed your example this month, in what direction would they end up? What would it take to be able to say, with Paul's honesty, follow me, not because I have arrived but because I am still running?