For the past few weeks, I have been teaching a series about the character traits of Jesus. I’ve been asked to post the messages, and open this up for discussion. I hope you enjoy learning about our Savior as much as I did writing these!

It’s often said that plagiarism is one of the most sincere forms of flattery in writing circles. But, what does this mean exactly? Parents and people who work with children know this lesson well! How many times have we known a child mimic an action or repeat something they heard us say without understanding what it really meant? For many of us, that memory is an embarrassing one for sure! If you are a trainer or manager at your workplace, it means those under your leadership will imitate or plagiarize your management style, whether you think it’s for the best or not.

Why do we, as Christians, often point to Jesus as the de facto model for our lives? Was it because He is the Son of God? Perhaps, but that is not it entirely. Is it because He is the image of perfection? No. We imitate Christ because we are Christians. If that sounds like a circular argument, it’s not, track with me for a second.

The word Christian comes from a Greek and Latin word combination. The first word, christianos, means “follower of Christ” or “follower of the Christ.” So, what is the Christ then? Remember that the New Testament was written in Greek, and Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. And since the English language like to borrow words from other languages, we use the Greek word Christ and Messiah to describe the deity of Jesus. How about that, you knew some Greek and Hebrew and didn’t even know it!

The second part of the word Christian comes from a Latin adjective meaning “adheres to” or “to belong to.” When you put these two words together, you end up with “a person adhering to, or belonging to, the Christ or the Messiah.” Another very literal way to look at this word combination is “little Christ.”

Remember what I said about plagiarism and mimicry being the most sincere forms of flattery? Is your mimicry of Jesus flattering to Him or is your mimicry more like mockery?

Read the rest, Part 2.