What Paul Teaches Us About Following Christ

Excerpted with permission from the Footsteps of Paul Bible Study, session one by Tony Merida. Copyright 2026, Lifeway Press.

How likely are you to call others to follow your example? If you are self-aware, you probably hesitate to speak this out loud, even if in honest private moments you would consider your example worth following. And you likely have learned to be wary of those who are quick to invite others to "be like me," who may have an overinflated view of self.

But that's exactly what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 11:1. Yet, the "me" Paul encouraged others to be like wasn't just Paul; rather, it was Paul as one seeking to imitate Christ with his whole life. Other translations use the word follow instead of imitate. Paul was confident in telling others to follow him only so much as he was confident he was following Christ. Being like Paul was never the goal; being like Christ was.

Just as Paul deemed himself and Apollos "coworkers with God" in 1 Corinthians 3:9, the point was not that they were equals with God but they were equals with one another as they served God together. Likewise, the invitation of 1 Corinthians 11:1 is a call to follow Jesus together—in the same manner as Paul.

Throughout the book of Acts, we are given direct insight into Paul's journey following Christ after his miraculous conversion on the Damascus Road (Acts 9). The second half of Acts records Paul's three major missionary journeys. For the purposes of this study, we will focus on portions of the second and third of these journeys (Acts 16–20), where Paul traveled through several regions of modern Greece and Turkey, always proclaiming the gospel while also meeting, training, correcting, and exhorting believers along the way.

As we study these passages, we see Paul's manner of following Christ included boldness, a love for God's Word, engagement with the culture of the day, ongoing reliance on God's promises, and a desire to finish well. Though this was only one portion of Paul's life, it is clear he lived in alignment with his parting words to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:24:

Paul's life is worth imitating because he shows us how to follow Jesus faithfully every day. As we do, we can confidently call others to do the same.