TODAY IN THE WORD
A mother was teaching her daughter how to bake a ham, and she began by cutting the ends off. Her daughter asked her why she did this. She responded that her mother taught her to bake hams that way. Curious, the daughter asked her grandmother why she cut off the ends of the ham. She, too, could only respond that her mother had done that. The daughter decided to ask her great-grandmother. “Well,” her great-grandma said shakily, “The hams were always too large for our little roasting pan.”

Much of what we do in our lives stems from imitation of others. We see this principle in our reading today from Hebrews, and we find that imitation has special importance for the church.

We have seen the idea of imitation before in Hebrews. In Hebrews 6:12 we were exhorted to imitate those who inherit God’s promises through faith and perseverance. Our writer even gave us the example of Abraham (cf. Heb. 6:13-15). We saw that all the people mentioned in chapter 11, and even Jesus Himself, provide us with the pattern of faithful perseverance for us to imitate. Now we are told that we ought to imitate our leaders (Heb. 13:7).

The foundation for this emphasis on imitation rests on our standard, Jesus Christ, who never changes. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (v. 8). If our leaders are imitating Him, then we are blessed to have living examples of Christlikeness in our lives. Paul endorses this same basic principle when he says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Hebrews doesn’t mince words when it comes to the responsibility held by Christian leaders.

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