People have a tendency to idolise people. Many have heroes whom they put on a pedestal and look up to. Teenagers have their room walls cluttered with images of their heroes, and adults just quietly follow their heroes’ actions and, when the opportunity arises, talk about them in conversation. Heroes can be from various areas of life – movie stars, sports stars, figures from history and so on. Christians also have Bible characters and great preachers as heroes.
How many of us have only the Lord as our hero... nobody else?
The apostle Paul is without doubt one of those heroes to some. But as I read his letters I noticed that he was just an ordinary man struggling with battles against issues such as low self-image and feelings of inferiority. An example of this could be found in 2 Corinthians 11:1-6: “I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.”
Paul had a good point here and we have the same issues today. He preached the pure gospel and then saw that the people were deceived by the ‘big guys’ in their shiny suits preaching a slight twist to the truth. They probably had the money, which they had made through their eloquent preaching, as well as the charisma and the people perhaps flocked to them. It’s the same today with many glamorous, charismatic preachers whose motive is money and numbers instead of Christ.
When these men turned up and the people started to flock to them, Paul had an option to become competitive and compromise his values so he could win back his followers. He, however, showed a side of his human vulnerability and acknowledged that it bothered him, that he felt inferior. But he decidedly chose not to compete, but to expose those people for who they were. “And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve,” (verses 12-15).
There are no heroes in this world. All people have feet of clay. Even though Paul appeared to be very confident, he actually did not always feel like that. But because his ambition was to preach Christ unadulterated he had a confidence from the Lord.
We need to be careful to be deceived by appearances. As Paul put it, Satan masquerades as an angel of the light and people will appear differently from what they really are. Paul mentioned that he would have liked to present the people to Christ as a pure virgin. That means that we are unadulterated by idols, such as money and other false gods, such as sports and entertainment. Don’t the popular preachers of today preach earthly wealth and comfort in return to giving to God, even though Christ stressed that our rewards are waiting in heaven? Is that not maybe the same problem that Paul struggled with?
Lord, help me not to idolise any person, but Christ, and live as He reveals in His word.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.
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