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what is said as to Abraham in verses 13-15 the writer is pointing to the worthies of the Old Testament as those we should imitate. Further, in chapter 13:7 he speaks about the leaders saying that we should “imitate their faith”, not, we may say, their failings. We should not imitate persons willy nilly, but what we see is good. When writing to Timothy Paul exhorts him to be “a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12) and Peter exhorts the shepherds to be “models for the flock” (1 Peter 5:3).

We have spoken of imitating persons, but Peter speaks of becoming “imitators of that which [is] good” (1 Peter 3:13). The verse could read ‘him that is good’ (see J.N.D. note). When we come to John he says; ”Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good” (3 John 11). He goes on to say “He that does good is of God” and “He that does evil has not seen God”. It was said of the sons of Eli that “they knew not Jehovah”. Had they had such knowledge they would not have pursued the course they had (1 Samuel 2:12). What all this amounts to is that we should not only be careful as to who we imitate, but what we imitate. If a person is given to much wine we should not imitate that (1 Timothy 3:8) !

When we come to Ephesians we find Paul saying: “ Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). The Ephesian epistle is really the top stone of Paul’s ministry. Colossians focuses on Christ, but the Ephesian epistle focuses on God; hence the exhortation. We should do what God has done as it says in the last verse of the previous chapter.

There are some things one would comment on. Christ was perfect. He did not need to be converted, but Paul did. In Paul we can see therefore something that we cannot see in Christ: a turning round from a path contrary to God’s will to one of subjection to his will. If we speak of Timothy we have one who had been brought up in a Christian household, at least so far as his Mother and Grandmother were concerned (2 Timothy 1:5). There is no suggestion that with Timothy there was a turning from an outward course of evil to the Lord, though inwardly there would no doubt have been exercises with Timothy which led to his taking the right path. One mentions this as not all need to be turned round, as Paul did. God can work with

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