Hero Worship

I Corinthians 3:5-7;

“Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then, neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase”.

The story goes that Apostle Paul found that members of the Corinthian church were arguing among themselves under the banner of names like Paul, Apollos, or Cephas (Peter).  They had basically, reduced their faith to worshipping these individuals as heroes. And even more than 2000 years later, the church and believers are still preoccupied with heroes.  We have the famous ‘heroes’ - the Lutherans, Wesleyans, etc.

The less famous ones like the pastors, ministers, etc, achieve this status of “hero” in their local congregation.  Their congregation lives on almost every word they utter without a hint of critical thought or biblical reflection, forgetting that they are mere instruments of God and do not deserve that type of allegiance.  Not from them any criticism of their “heroes”; they cannot even stand up to them, and will be hostile to anyone who does so.

Apostle Paul, who was a prominent part of the controversy, set the believers straight. He made it clear, in summary, that servants are just what they are:  Servants.  And that while it is good to give due credit to their work, God is the one who ultimately brings it all together for success.  God is the only one deserving of praise, obedience, and complete loyalty.

What does all of this mean?  We need to be careful about how high we hold someone.  No one is perfect aside from Christ, no one saves aside from Christ, and no one is Lord aside from Christ… not the pastor, not parents, not even the person who shared the Gospel with us and led us to Jesus.  Because of this, no one, NO ONE, deserves our total allegiance, and no one is above criticism.  Do not follow anyone else but Christ!

We have been called to follow Christ and test everyone else by that standard, including our favorite teachers, pastors, etc. We may have people that we respect and really turn to for teaching and guidance.  Everyone needs that.  But we are in danger of harmful idolatry if we take that respect and make it some unhealthy allegiance or bond.  That is for Christ alone.

We are not denying the importance of Paul, Apollos, or any leader for that matter, but our emphasis must not be in glorifying humans but in glorifying God. God is the true giver of all life and deserves the glory.

So, let us stop worshipping so called ‘heroes’ in our family, school, church, on television, in sports, etc. We should rather, listen to wise people, be humble enough to learn from different people, but ultimately let our commitment be to Christ alone. We can criticize and disagree with people if what they are saying or doing isn’t biblical.

(With excerpts from leesomniac.wordpress.com)