WHAT TYPE OF FOLLOWER ARE YOU?

“Following Christ isn’t something that can be done halfheartedly or on the side. It is not a label we can display when it is useful. It must be central to everything we do and are.”― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

We like to follow people on social media. The most-followed individual user is soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, who has approximately 621 million followers. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson has 397 million followers, while Beyonce has 320 million followers. Many Christian writers, artists, musicians, and teachers also have a large follower base. One of them is Priscilla Shirer. Priscilla offers daily encouragement, pointing her 1.7 million followers back to the Bible to help inspire and guide them on their walks with God. We follow people on social media who either inspire, teach, or entertain us. And we can share what they share with others, that tidbit of information, with the click of a button.

Social media following is a whole lot different from following Christ. Following Jesus requires so much more of us than a like, retweet, or share. There is a cost to following Jesus. It’s easy to follow our favorite celebrities on Instagram, but following Christ requires something more of us.

Matthew 4:17-20 says, “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.”

Simon Peter, Andrew, John, and James all abandoned their nets, boats, and livelihoods to follow Jesus. Later, Jesus called Matthew out of his tax collector’s booth. It is remarkable that these men responded to Jesus’ call and readily left their old lives behind. The most astonishing part of this is that none of them said, “Where?” When people ask you to follow them, in most cases, you would ask, “Where?” You would want to know the route. None of those questions were asked when they are leaving and whether they like where they are going, yet the disciples followed Jesus.

When Jesus says, “Follow me!” He expects us to trust Him enough to do just that. Granted, it’s frightening to step into the unknown, but we can trust where the Shepherd is taking the sheep. Following Jesus doesn’t mean fitting His plan into our lives; following Jesus means fitting our lives into His plan.

When we truly follow Jesus, we commit ourselves to Him above all else. It’s not a half-hearted, cursory connection we may or may not keep in our news feed.

Discussion Questions:

What does it mean to you to follow Jesus?
What impact does following Jesus have on our daily lives?