Who are you following? Who should you be following?

 Who are you following?  Who should you be following?

 

In our present day of social media followers are very important.  The term social media influencer has been coined to signify those people who have a large number of followers.  People are able to make money now off of their social media if they have a large enough number of followers. Almost every YouTube video someone puts out is asking you to like it and hit the subscribe/follow button.  Be honest, have you watched someone’s video or checked out their social media because they had a large number of followers?  Have you ever bought something or tried something out because the influencer had it posted about it and so many of their followers bought it or tried it?

 

So as Christians how important is it to have followers?  Who are we following?  Who should we be following?

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

 

Imitate- To follow in manners; to copy in form, color or quality. We imitate another in dress or manners; we imitate a statue, a painting, a sound, an action, when we make or do that which resembles it. We should seek the best models to imitate and in morals and piety, it is our duty to imitate the example of our Savior. But as we cannot always make an exact similitude of the original, hence,

 

Another way of say this verse is follow me and I also follow Christ.  

It appears to me that, at times, we get too caught up in leading that we forget WHO we are supposed to be following.  You may have heard the saying that “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” Well, if that walk is with Jesus what does it matter if anyone is following us?  Is our goal to get people to follow us or to follow Jesus?  

 

Sadly, we forget to remember 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 is speaking more of following along with Paul more so than follow along after Paul.  To be a true imitator is to do what the one being imitated does.  If Paul is imitating Christ, we need to be imitating Christ because to really imitate what Paul is doing is to actually by-pass Paul and go straight to what he is imitating. 

 

If there is anything positive that we can take from the mess ups from different prominent Christian “leaders” failures and falls is that no matter how gifted they were or how mightily God may have used them or how big of a ministry they had none of that kept them from falling.  None of us are good enough, on our own, to keep ourselves holy or righteous.  If we are trusting in ourselves or others we will fail. 

 

God never fails.  Why in the world would I ever want anyone to follow after me when I know that I have the ability to fail?  Why would I ever want to follow another person when I know that they have the capability to fail?  Why would I pattern my life after a copy when I have access to the original?  

 

That is why it is more important to focus on the one we SHOULD be following, Jesus, then on following anyone else OR on if anyone is following us.  Doesn’t it make it hard to follow Jesus if we are concerned about who is following us?  To know if someone is following you, you have to turn your eyes away from Jesus to look around to see if anyone is following you.  I wonder if that is why so many who have fallen fell.