You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
1 Therefore
be imitators of God, as beloved children; NASB
Therefore, 'oun,' ties the previous chapter and its principles, to this chapter wherein you are called to put off the old and put on the new habits in your life.
This means to stop living under the influence of the sin nature, or the old man, and begin and continue living under the influence of the Holy Spirit who is the power behind your spiritual life.
The word for followers, 'mimetes, means to imitate. This does not mean to follow as in walking behind, not to be friends, not to be simply numbered among, but to imitate. And to imitate means to pursue and live the same pattern of life, namely the spiritual life, as God lives, but do so in and for your life.
Apart from salvation, you cannot imitate Gods life.
Apart from confession and fellowship, you cannot imitate Gods life.
Apart from spiritual growth through study and learning and understanding and so forth, you cannot imitate Gods life.
You cannot do something that you know nothing about.
Most believers imitate the lives of unbelievers, which is to say that they live in the sphere of their carnal lives. And even though they are saved, they do not have a functional spiritual life and therefore have no spiritual growth. They are simply stagnant and going nowhere as far as their spiritually intended life is concerned.
As children, we are expected to follow the pattern that a child is expected to follow of a father.
The father is the leader and master of the family and it is he who sets the pattern of life for those members of his family. The wife is the mirror of her husband, and her reflection likewise sets or reinforces that same pattern for the children. Thus the children are raised up and trained properly in the Christian life. Or at least that is the idea in a perfect world.
Therefore, God the Father is the pattern, Christ is the example, and the Holy Spirit is the power, and we are to imitate what God has lived and provided for us.
