“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.”
The Bible constantly refers to us as God’s “children.” We are never the “adults of God,” but instead are compared to babies and toddlers. The more quickly we grasp this concept, the more free we are to act the way babies act: imitating their parents. God gave us a concrete example of how to live through Jesus. Do what he did and you’ll be acting just like your Father.
Part of what imitating Jesus means is getting rid of junk. His work was all about bring health and freedom to everyone he touched, and if we want to do that as well we need to reject every sin we can possibly identify. Sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscene stories, foolish talks, course jokes. All of these are simply not what God’s kingdom is about.
Here’s your freedom for today: you will become free by freeing your mind from earthly things. How much time do you spend watching television shows that contain much (or all!) of what is on this list of sins? Compare that to how much time you spend aligning your thoughts with God’s thoughts through Bible reading and prayer. If we truly want to imitate God, we have to spend time with him. We have to watch him, study him, and follow his every move. Only then will we become like the children we were made to be.