King Louie, the orangutan, in Disney’s 1967 animated film, which is based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel, The Jungle Book wants to be like Mowgli, the kidnapped man-cub. He wants Mowgli to teach him how to make fire though Mowgli hasn’t a clue because he was brought up in the jungle. Here’s the song for a Monday morning:-
Oh, oobee doo
I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You’ll see it’s true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too
It’s nice to start the day with a song. And here is the connection …!
“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11 v 1)
This could be more connected to what Paul has just written in his summary of the food sacrificed to idols. Or it could be about what he is going to teach next regarding corporate worship.
What we can glean from this short verse is this:-
- Discipleship is not only about compliance to rules but a journey of transformation. It is about following.
- It flies in the face of ‘don’t follow me follow Jesus!’ It’s more ‘watch how I follow Jesus and then you will be able to follow Jesus even more closely.’ It is less about desiring to ‘wanna walk like you’ and more a journey to the same direction.
- The ultimate end goal is Christ. We don’t become like each other as we might follow one another’s example but we do aim to become like Christ.
- Leadership isn’t about authority it is about leading so that other people can follow your journey in your pursuit of Christ.
- The Christian journey is not individualistic but set in a community.
I wanna walk like you is more about us being like Christ but for that to happen following others examples of doing so is a positive thing to do.
Missions Paul 