When we look in the Bible, we find that one of the sins that is most often mentioned is idolatry. To idolise someone or something is basically to exalt that person or thing inappropriately in comparison with God. It is to make someone or something a kind of mini-god, at least to some extent.
Making church
leaders idols
I would suggest that
in the church today one of the common ways in which this sin occurs is when church
leaders are idolised. There are many Christians who put a certain leader on a
pedestal in a way that they shouldn’t.
Of course, it is
right to love and respect church leaders, especially those who devote
themselves to working hard for their flocks and who set a good example of
Christian conduct (1 Thess 5:12-13; 1 Tim 5:17). However, sometimes this goes
too far. Sometimes Christians can actually start to engage in idol-worship of a
leader they admire.
I expect that this
has always been a problem down through the centuries. We sinful human beings
are very prone to idolatry in a multitude of ways, including by idolising other
human beings for all sorts of reasons. So it makes sense to think that in every
generation the temptation to idolise certain church leaders is one that many
Christians have given in to.
Some signs of
this sort of idolatry
There are some common
signs that a Christian may have fallen into the trap of idolising a church
leader.
To begin with, there
are situations when someone gets angry with a person simply for disagreeing
with a leader.
I have seen this
myself. For example, one occasion comes to mind when I disagreed with something
a well-known Christian leader and teacher said. I didn’t accuse or blame this
leader at all, and there was nothing nasty in my attitude. I simply took a
different view from him on some issue that I can’t even remember the details of
now.
What I do remember,
however, is that a certain Christian became very angry with me for disagreeing
with this leader. His attitude towards me seemed to be: ‘Who do you think you
are, you nobody, to disagree with this wonderful teacher?’
The anger was completely
inappropriate, and I am pretty confident that it was motivated by some level of
idolatry.
There are also
occasions when someone doesn’t go as far as actually getting angry with a
person who disagrees with a certain leader, but they would still never bring
themselves to admit that the leader could be wrong on anything, even on
something minor. And they hate it when people disagree with this person. This
is also a sign that idolatry may be involved.
Something else that
can be a sign of this is when a Christian doesn’t stop going on about a certain
church leader. I can think of one person I used to know, and it seemed that in
most conversations he would make a point of singing the praises of one
particular Christian leader and author. He was constantly referring me to books
that this man had written, but I don’t think there was ever another author that
he recommended.
There was something not
right about this. My friend was just too infatuated with one Christian leader,
and I suspect there was some idolatry there. And to be perfectly honest, I
think that I myself have also gone wrong in this sort of way in the past, to a
certain extent.
Failing to watch
out for mistakes
Idol-worship of any
kind is obviously wrong in and of itself. We are designed to worship God and
not anyone or anything else (Matt 4:10).
To be in awe of God’s
abilities makes perfect sense, but to be in awe of a church leader, who
received all his abilities from God in the first place (1 Cor 4:7), makes no
sense and serves to elbow God out of the way.
However, there is
another reason why idolising church leaders is a problem. Importantly, every
Christian leader will make some mistakes in his teaching, no matter how hard he
prays against it. Sinful human beings are just too prone to error for that to
be avoided.
Besides, if there
were one church leader who is always right on everything, there could only be
one of them, for the simple reason that no two leaders agree on every point. So
we should be in no doubt that every leader will get some things wrong.
This means that if a
Christian has put a certain leader on a pedestal, and is not open to the possibility
of him making any mistakes, they won’t be watchful for any errors in his
teaching. In other words, they will have closed themselves off to any insight
that the Holy Spirit might give that something the leader has taught isn’t
quite right.
How teaching
works
It is important to
understand what is supposed to happen when a Christian teacher teaches
something correct. The Holy Spirit takes what is taught and persuades the
listener/reader that this thing is true.
So if we are
listening to a Christian teacher who is teaching something correct, the teacher’s
belief that this thing is true should become our belief too because we are
persuaded that it makes sense.
We should never end
up in the position of believing something to do with the Christian faith simply
because someone we respect believes that thing. It needs to become something
that we ourselves have become convinced of for good reasons. Whoever else
believes it is really beside the point.
Of course, it is very
common for children to believe something to do with the Christian faith just
because their parents believe it. We understand that this is how the mind of a
child often works.
But for an adult this
is not acceptable. Adults need to go deeper than that. And if someone is
idolising a church leader and not weighing what that leader says, they are not
going to spot any of the mistakes that he makes.
Respect, not
idolatry
Let us by all means
greatly respect good Christian leaders. Let us speak highly of them to the
extent that it is appropriate. And let us love them deeply.
But let us be
vigilant that the respect doesn’t become idolatry. The Lord requires this of us
all.
See also:
Beware of Becoming Attached to Church Traditions
Christians Need to Put Everything to the Test
