Joe was a drunk. There was no other way to put it. He had wasted much of his life until he finally stumbled into a Bowery mission, heard of the message of Christ as His Savior, and was changed. Prior to his conversion, he had the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom there was no hope, someone who had only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But all that was changed now. He really did have a new life in Christ. Joe had become the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. He spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never a task that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left behind by a violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what he was asked with a smile on his face and what seemed to be gratitude for the chance to help out. He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered into the mission from the streets, and to undress and tuck into bed those who were too sick to take care of themselves. Joe was happy to do whatever was asked of him.

One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening message to the usual crowd of wrecked humanity sitting there quietly with drooping heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar, knelt to pray and cried out for God to help him change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, “O God, make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!” The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’” The man looked up at the director with a puzzled look on his face and asked, “Is he like Joe?”

Wouldn’t it be great if more of us were so much like Jesus that people confused us for Him? Joe was the embodiment of what Paul wrote about to the Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

We are to follow Jesus to the point of being closely identified with our Savior, united with him. We should be identified with Him because we know that we have been saved by Him. We have a new life because we possess the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus. You and I are a dearly loved part of God’s creation, precious to Him, people for whom He was willing to send His Son so that He could die to pay for sins and redeem us for His own possession. By His doing, we have been joined to Him, united with Him. We are to be more and more like him. That’s what Joe was doing. That is what you and I should be doing as well.