For your broader question about imitating Jesus, 1 John 2:6 answers it directly. “This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” Jesus also told us to take up our Cross and instructed His followers (FOLLOWERS!) on how to live properly (like Him). We are to imitate his love, compassion, self-sacrifice, mercy, etc., not be him. He is God. We can only imitate how He lived His human life in service to others.
As for Paul, it’s hard for me not to understand Paul as saying imitate me as I imitate Christ. That is how the NIV, NRSV, etc., translate 1 Cor 11:1.
NIV: Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
NRSV: 1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
To this verse you can add 1 Cor 4:16 , Gal 4:12 and Phil 3:17 where Paul also seems to talk about imitating himself.
Here are some quotes from the Baker Exegetical Commentary on Corinthians 4:16 which should be super helpful:
“Paul stresses his unique relationship to them as the one who “fathered” (ἐγέννησα, egennēsa, begot) them “through the gospel.”[1] Holmberg (1978: 78) finds that Paul reminds his readers of his fatherhood (or motherhood) in all his letters except Romans and that the concept “expresses the fact that he has begotten them or given them life by the transmission of the Gospel of Christ.” Paul refers to “the gospel” without a qualifier, which shows that he assumes they know what he is talking about. It is shorthand for the underlying gospel narrative of God’s salvific acts on behalf of humankind through Christ’s cross and resurrection and assumes that the Corinthians are thoroughly familiar with it (see M. Mitchell 1994). He uses the same verb to describe his relationship to Onesimus, whom he “begot” while he was in chains (Philem. 10). It is tied to bringing them to faith (2:4–5), planting (3:6), and laying the foundation (3:10). In rabbinic literature a proselyte is likened to a “child just born” (b. Yebam. 22a; b. Sanh. 19b; see SB 3:340–41), but this concept also would have been familiar from the mystery religions.
It goes on and this is more directly about what you are asking:
“It should be remembered that these first converts had no precedents or heritage to coach them on how to live out the radical demands of the gospel. They had only Paul’s verbal instructions and what they could witness firsthand of his own behavior and attitudes. Paul’s request that they imitate him, however, strikes many today as egotistical, but such criticism should dissipate when one traces what he could expect them to imitate. They are to give up their hankering for high status and accept the lowliness that Paul models. They are to welcome being regarded as fools for Christ, and as weak and dishonored. They are to return abuse with blessing, slander with conciliation, and to endure persecution (4:10–13). They are to recognize that all that they are and have comes to them as a grace-gift from God (3:10) and that they are not “inherently extraordinary (4:7). They are to think of themselves as no better than menial field hands (3:5) and servants (4:1) awaiting God’s judgment to determine if they were trustworthy (4:5). They are to rid themselves of all resentments and rivalries with co“workers so that they can toil together in God’s field (3:5–9). They are to resist passing themselves off as wise or elite by using lofty words of wisdom or aligning themselves with those who do and to rely instead on the power of God that works through weakness, fear, and trembling (2:1–4). The ultimate aim is not to be Paul-like, but Christlike (11:1). The Corinthians are to imitate him only insofar as his behavior corresponds to the gospel (cf. 4:9–13, his suffering; 9:19, his becoming the slave of all; 2 Cor. 12:9–10, his weakness; 2 Cor. 12:12, his patience).”
Yup, he is saying imitate me as I imitate Christ and His teachings.
Vinnie
