Bible Study
December 3, 2025
1 Thessalonians 2:12 – 14 (NKJV)
“The Cost of Being an Imitator”
“That you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans. “
“Walk worthy” we are admonished to do and the reason for our walk is that our eternal salvation is based on our actions. Paul when using the term “His own kingdom and glory” is referring to heaven.
The “Word of God” was taught from the Old Testament by the apostles. Paul used that message on his missionary journeys. What does the “Word of God” do for us? According to John MacArthur the Word “includes salvation, teaching and training, counseling, reviving, restoring, warning and rewarding, nourishing, judging, sanctifying, freeing, enriching, protecting, strengthening, making wise, rejoicing the heart, and prospering.”
We are to become imitators of Jesus. Salvation requires more than being forgiven. True salvation should give us the desire to take on the image of Chrsit. We should desire each day to become more like Him. Being an imitator can become a costly responsibility in our life. Jesus asked his disciples a simple question.
The phrase “drink the cup” appears in a number of scripture references, primarily in Jesus’s references to his suffering and in the Lord’s Supper. In Matthew 20:22, Jesus asks His disciples if they can “drink the cup” he is about to drink, referring to the suffering and death he will face. In 1 Corinthians 11:25, the “cup” is part of the Lord’s Supper ritual, symbolizing the new covenant in his blood. True discipleship will become costly.
God Bless.
Asbury Chapel 