I encourage you, then, be imitators of me.

Therefore, be ¹  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad but what is good. ¹  The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God. ² 

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you received ¹  the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, despite great affliction.

so that you may not be sluggish, ¹  but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.

For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, ¹  of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews,

Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

For you know yourselves how you must imitate us, because we did not behave without discipline ¹  among you,

Be imitators of me, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example.

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give ourselves as an example for you to imitate. ¹ 

Do not envy a violent man, ¹  and do not choose to imitate ²  any of his ways;

They ¹  rebel against you ²  and act deceitfully; ³  your enemies lie. ⁴ 

I will put an end to the obscene conduct in the land; all the women will learn a lesson from this and not engage in obscene conduct.

They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey. ¹  They paid allegiance to ²  worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. ³  They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ⁴ 

There were also male cultic prostitutes ¹  in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations ²  that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.

they observed the practices ¹  of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel. ² 

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter. ¹  He did evil in the sight of ²  the Lord.