The Imitation Game (Friday Devotional)

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

- John 13:34

When I was a child, my dream was to become a major league baseball player. I learned everything I could about the sport, I rarely missed a game on TV (or at least the innings before bedtime), and I played baseball with my brothers as often as their whims and the Texas heat would permit. And when they wanted to do something else, I would head to the backyard by myself, Nerf bat in hand, and do my best imitation of Juan Gonzalez.

Juan Gone, you should know, was the best hitter the Rangers had in that summer of 1998; indeed, he was voted the American League Most Valuable Player at season's end. That summer he launched 45 home runs, drove in a league-leading 157 runs, and led his team to its second postseason appearance in franchise history. When the All-Star Game rolled around, he wasn't just a starter, but the cleanup hitter for a powerful American League lineup. Juan Gonzalez was the man.

So when I'd head out to the backyard with my Nerf bat, ready to imagine myself batting in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the World Series, there was no question who I was trying to look like. I waggled the bat high above my head like Juan, I employed a high leg kick like Juan, I even gave the imaginary pitcher a surly glare like Juan. Funny thing is, he wasn't even my favorite player on the Rangers. But I wanted to be the best, and being the best meant imitating Juan Gonzalez.

Imitation, it's been said, is the sincerest form of flattery—but it's more than that. Imitation is one of the ways we learn, grow, and change. When you see someone who has mastered a skill which you want to get better at, it's only natural that you try to do what they're doing.

In Christ, we have been given the very personification of God's love—and his command is that we imitate that love. "Just as I have loved you," he said, "you also should love one another."

As fallen, fragile, fallible people, we have a tendency to make love, compassion, and kindness more complicated than they need to be. We look to qualify God's words on who to love and how to love, asking every 'what if' in the book, coming up with scenario after scenario in which we're allowed to be judgmental instead of merciful, hurtful instead of helpful. Like the man whose questioning prompted the parable of the Good Samaritan, too often our questions about loving well are really rooted in self-justification.

However, the Bible's teaching on love is not ultimately grounded in situational ethics, but in a person. Our guide for knowing who, how, and why to love isn't a commandment or a catechism, but a Christ. With his life, death and resurrection, Jesus gave us a master class in God's love. So if you want to love well, it means imitating the best in the business.