"For to _____ to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21). Dare we plug our name in that blank with uncrossed fingers? Is Paul's lifestyle normative for us or not? He was a spectacle to the world, a fool, weak, and held in disrepute (1 Cor 4:9-10). And when he says "imitate me" (vs 16) we receive a divine call to become the "scum of the world" (vs 13), loving our enemies, rejoicing in suffering, serving the least of these, plucking out what leads us to sin, loving Christ more than anyone or anything.
Borrowing a question from this month's Tabletalk, "if you are following Jesus and indwelled by the third person of the Trinity, how can your life not be radical? If the demands of Jesus are so extraordinary, and if you have God inside of you, how come you live such ordinary lives?"
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