Good morning. If anyone
wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses
his life for My sake shall find it. Of course He is not talking about taking up
a physical cross and losing your physical life. It is something much harder to
do. With your physical life, it is over and done with fairly quickly (though
that does not mean that it will not be very painful). With your soul, it takes
a lifetime. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and
forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Of course
at the time it seems like the here and now is more definite and more important.
There is always time to change and make things right at the end - we think. For
the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and
will then recompense every man according to his deeds. In the end you will get
your comeuppance. Everything may seem great here on earth; but it is just a
short time in comparison to the eternity of your soul. Father thank You that
the reader denies him/herself, takes up his/her cross, and follows Jesus.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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