While running errands one day, I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. It read, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” The credit for the quote was given to Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu who was responsible for religious and social freedoms in his home country of India. Although as Christians we cannot defend his beliefs, the strong comment he made about Christians does resonate. 

In Ephesians 5:1,2, we are told, “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us.” Christian itself means “little Christs,” or “little anointed ones.” But how can we call ourselves Christians when we don’t always act like Christ? First of all, Christ was perfect; we are not. We are vulnerable and sinful, and we fall way short of perfection. But when God commands us to follow his example, it’s already been fulfilled in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” 

So we can be imitators of Christ! When we grasp that it is him within us who loves and does all good things, we are capable of being imitators of him!

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).