Martha Olawale

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” Matthew 23:1-3

I grew up eating only organic food because the world around me was not as industrialized as it is now. It’s been years since then, and I still have difficulty adjusting to non-organic food tastes. While in terms of food, God has blessed humanity with the wisdom to maximize our available resources to combat hunger, I still like organic better because my mouth has tasted its goodness. For me, the pesticide and chemicalized lab versions don’t just meet the quality of the originals.

The tendency to follow is ingrained in our mortality. While God created us as free thinkers with individual choices, He also made us to thrive in community. Before we look up, we mostly look around. We search for crowds we can blend into and be accepted by. People who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, and believe in what we believe. We clamor for leaders who speak to what we want and choose to listen to those we want to.

However, to live like Christ, we must learn from the source, not the sub-source. While you have to surround your life with mentors, pastors, godly friends, and families, always filter things through God’s word directly. You have as much right to learn from the Father as every Christian you know, and yes, that includes the most Christian human you know.

Many Christians have made idols out of humans because they can see God’s gifts on display through them. Yes, you should honor and follow people who have walked the path you are threading, but do so cautiously, even as you read this and follow this page. I am not an authority; neither is anyone; God is, and we all have the same access to Him as followers of Christ.

Don’t fall because your mentor’s foot slipped or someone you’ve learned from disappointed you. Your salvation is yours, given by Christ, and is secured by the cross. Don’t throw in the towel in defeat just because someone else has something to learn and grow from.

If we choose to live for Christ, we must also live like Christ. To do so, we must study Christ's life through the Bible and develop a thirst to know Him more than we can from Sunday morning sermons. You’ll be amazed at how much you miss when you don’t sit at His feet.

Your pastor, parents, or Christian friends might have the right idea and say the right things about Christ, but they are not Jesus; Jesus is Jesus. Learn from them, but model your life after Jesus, not them. As a human, He didn’t fail nor falter because the Bible says, “He knew no sin” 2 Corinthians 5:21. He already accomplished what we all struggle to achieve: perfection. However, the people around you are still in a process, so follow the person who has passed the tests.

In Matthew 23, Jesus encouraged the crowd to listen to what the Pharisees were teaching because they knew the scriptures. However, He warned against following them because they don’t practice what they teach. Listening to the right thing is different from following what is wrong. Learning to separate both gives us and the people we are learning from grace and room to fail without taking us with them because when they make things right with God, we might not be there to rise with them.