‘Follow Me’ / ‘Imitate me’ - The Misunderstood "Me"

 

When man tries to usurp God, that's when challenges shift from personal to a corporate level. The problem today is people are elevated and worshipped but God is used.  In some cases, people are deceived to an extent of elevating ordinary people as God. We find an incident in the book of Acts when Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra. Paul heals the man who was lame from birth and then people shouted saying, “The gods have come down to us in human from” Acts 14:10. In verse 13, it is recorded that the priest of Zeus brought bulls and wreaths to the gates because he intended, with the crowds to offer sacrifice (Acts 14:13). Paul and Barnabas did not just overlook the misunderstanding. They tore their robes and rushed to the crowd shouting and clarifying that they are not gods, but servants of the living God proclaiming good news (Acts 14:15).

However, in present times, specially gifted people elevate themselves to the point of importance and mislead people. Spiritual leaders and Pastors continue begging people to follow the speaker in social media. Building fan base has become the ultimate priority and ulterior goal, which in turn means more money. The success of ministry and churches is sadly gauged by the "ABC model" - Attendance, Building and Cash.

Jesus' phrase ‘Follow me’ was used to build a team of twelve ordinary men to be revolutionaries. The phrase ‘Imitate me’ (1 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 11:1) was used by Apostle Paul to create a model. We confuse these phrases in our ministry. Allow me to explain my point. When Jesus used the phrase ‘Follow me’, it had a definite outcome. If you check in Mark 1:17 it says, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.”. Only Jesus could use this phrase, ‘follow me’, in its true sense, because He was God Himself. Therefore, the agenda and goal of every Christian, Pastor and leader should be to get people to follow Christ. I reiterate, it's not the person or their ministry. It is not merely following the leader and being stunted in their vision to understand the Great Commission but being part of the ministry to engage and fulfill Christ's mission. There is a major difference.

Now coming to Paul,  we find in his epistles the phrase ‘imitate me’. In 1 Corinthians 4:16 says, ‘Therefore I urge you to imitate me’. And then in 1 Corinthians 11:1 further clarifies by stating this, “imitate me as I also imitate Christ”. It is perfectly ok to create a model or an example for people to see Christ in us. But not to create a fan base to meet our ends. Christ ensured that the followers become fishers of men, meaning ‘Disciples’ are supposed to make disciples. It is not just to settle and live a good Christian life without fulfilling God’s purpose to reach the non-Christians. Let us stop striving to build our base. The question that begs for an answer is are our followers equipped enough to share the gospel and create a model so that the crowd can find Christ?

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