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Friday, May 23rd, 2025
the Fifth Week after Easter
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

1 Corinthians 4:16

I encourage you, then, be imitators of me.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Example;   Love;   Zeal, Religious;   Thompson Chain Reference - Example;   Imitation;   Paul's;   Spiritual;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Perfect, Perfection;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Presbyterians;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Imitate;   1 Corinthians;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Manna;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Example;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Lutherans;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Follower;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for May 31;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
King James Version (1611)
Wherefore I beseech you, be yee followers of me.
King James Version
Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
English Standard Version
I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
New American Standard Bible
Therefore I urge you, be imitators of me.
New Century Version
so I beg you, please follow my example.
Amplified Bible
So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father].
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
Berean Standard Bible
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
Contemporary English Version
and I want you to be like me.
Complete Jewish Bible
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
Darby Translation
I entreat you therefore, be my imitators.
Easy-to-Read Version
So I beg you to be like me.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wherefore, I pray you, be ye folowers of me.
George Lamsa Translation
I beseech you therefore, to follow me.
Good News Translation
I beg you, then, to follow my example.
Lexham English Bible
Therefore I exhort you, become imitators of me.
Literal Translation
Because of this, I urge you, be imitators of me.
American Standard Version
I beseech you therefore, be ye imitators of me.
Bible in Basic English
So my desire is that you take me as your example.
Hebrew Names Version
I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.
International Standard Version
So I urge you to become imitators of me.1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:9;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
I entreat then of you that you be like me.
Murdock Translation
I beseech you, therefore, that ye be like me.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherfore, I desire you, be ye folowers of me.
English Revised Version
I beseech you therefore, be ye imitators of me.
World English Bible
I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
I beseech you therefore, be ye followers of me.
Weymouth's New Testament
I entreat you therefore to become like me.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor, britheren, Y preye you, be ye foleweris of me, as Y of Crist.
Update Bible Version
I urge you therefore, be imitators of me.
Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
New King James Version
Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
New Living Translation
So I urge you to imitate me.
New Life Bible
So I ask you with all my heart to follow the way I live.
New Revised Standard
I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I beseech you, therefore, - become imitators of me.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ.
Revised Standard Version
I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Wherfore I desyre you to folowe me.
Young's Literal Translation
I call upon you, therefore, become ye followers of me;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Wherfore I exhorte you, be ye my folowers.
Mace New Testament (1729)
and therefore I intreat you, to copy after me.
Simplified Cowboy Version
So watch me carefully and do what I do.

Contextual Overview

14 I am not writing these things to shame you, but to correct you as my dear children. 15 For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I encourage you, then, be imitators of me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Corinthians 11:1, John 10:4, John 10:5, Philippians 3:17, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 3:9, Hebrews 13:7, 1 Peter 5:3

Reciprocal: 1 Corinthians 1:10 - I beseech Ephesians 4:1 - beseech 2 Thessalonians 3:7 - how 3 John 1:11 - follow

Cross-References

Genesis 3:8
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.
Genesis 4:14
Look! You are driving me off the land today, and I must hide from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me."
Exodus 20:18
All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking—and when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance.
2 Kings 13:23
But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them. He extended his favor to them because of the promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day.
2 Kings 24:20
What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord 's anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Job 1:12
So the Lord said to Satan, "All right then, everything he has is in your power. Only do not extend your hand against the man himself!" So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord .
Job 2:7
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord , and he afflicted Job with a malignant ulcer from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Job 20:17
He will not look on the streams, the rivers, which are the torrents of honey and butter.
Psalms 5:11
But may all who take shelter in you be happy! May they continually shout for joy! Shelter them so that those who are loyal to you may rejoice!
Psalms 68:2
As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wherefore, I beseech you,.... Though he might have used the power and authority of a father, yet he chose rather to entreat and beseech them; saying,

be ye followers of me; for who should children follow, but their parents? The Vulgate Latin, adds, "as I am of Christ"; so Chrysostom in his time read it; and Beza says he found it so written in one Greek exemplar; and so it is in one of Stephens's; it seems to have crept in from 1 Corinthians 11:1. However, though it might not be now expressed by the apostle, it is to be supposed; for he never desired any to follow him any more, or further than he followed Christ; particularly he was desirous that these his spiritual children would follow him, and abide by him in the doctrine of a crucified Christ, he had preached among them, and not the false apostles, who had represented his ministry as weak and foolish; and in his life and conversation, especially in his humble carriage and deportment among them, and in his tender love and affection for them; observing their growing pride, haughtiness, and vain opinion of themselves, and those unnatural divisions and animosities which were fomented among them; and also in bearing reproach and persecution cheerfully and patiently, for the Gospel of Christ; a detail of which he had given them in some preceding verses.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherefore - Since I am your spiritual father.

Be ye followers of me - Imitate me; copy my example; listen to my admonitions. Probably Paul had particularly in his eye their tendency to form parties; and here admonishes them that he had no disposition to form sects, and entreats them in this to imitate his example. A minister should always so live as that he can, without pride or ostentation, point to his own example; and entreat his people to imitate him. He should have such a confidence in his own integrity; he should lead such a blameless life; and “he should be assured that his people have so much evidence of his integrity,” that he can point them to his own example, and entreat them to live like himself. And to do this, he should live a life of piety, and should furnish such evidence of a pure conversation, that his people may have reason to regard him as a holy man.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 4:16. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me. — It should rather be translated, Be ye imitators of me; μιμηται, from which we have our word mimic, which, though now used only in a bad or ludicrous sense, simply signifies an imitator of another person, whether in speech, manner, habit, or otherwise. As children should imitate their parents in preference to all others, he calls on them to imitate him, as he claims them for his children. He lived for God and eternity, seeking not his own glory, emolument, or ease: those sowers of sedition among them were actuated by different motives. Here then the apostle compares himself with them: follow and imitate me, as I follow and imitate Christ: do not imitate them who, from their worldly pursuits, show themselves to be actuated with a worldly spirit.


 
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