Looking back, I think that our parents were reasonably lenient with us, but time and again we were warned not to do anything to sully our father’s reputation. My dad had a good name in our town, and the four of us boys-Andy, Ray, Alan, Ron-were reminded of that fact wherever we went. Just as I wrote that last sentence, I could hear my mother saying to me and my three brothers, “Don’t do anything to hurt your father’s name.” That was a really big deal in our family. Pritchard’s son.” Because my father was a beloved physician, his name and reputation preceded me.

When I was growing up in a small town in Alabama, I was introduced almost everywhere as “Dr. Because we have been entered God’s family by the new birth (John 3:1-8), we belong to God, we bear his name, and we share a family resemblance. To imitate God means to follow his example. We are to “imitate” our Heaven Father because we are his children. When we know who we are, it’s not hard to figure out what we are supposed to do. Or to say it another way, what we do flows out of who we are. It’s not about what we do so much as who we are. “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children” (v. Each part helps us see clearly the difference between saints and sinners.Įverything Paul says in this passage goes back to our spiritual identity. Our passage has a simple outline: a reminder, a warning, and a reason. Saints ought to live like saints and not like sinners because of who they are in Christ. Sinners live another way because they are sinners. Saints live one way because they are saints. We do well to note and respect the difference.

Nothing good can happen when we blur the lines God has drawn.

Saints and sinners broken silenz